


Good Morning, Mr Rose

by agoodpersonrose



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Blow Jobs, Co-workers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, First Kiss, First Meetings, First Time, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Injuries, Mutual Pining, Slow Build, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:02:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 37,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23771998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agoodpersonrose/pseuds/agoodpersonrose
Summary: “Hello David Rose, my name is Patrick Brewer, I am the new maths teacher and I am looking forward to teaching here and getting to know you better.” Patrick says, standing up to attention and sticking a hand out.David doesn’t even try to hide his smile as he reaches for the hand, “nice to meet you.” He says, “does this mean we can pretend that every embarrassing thing that happened today didn’t?”“Oh, absolutely not.” Patrick says, “just the bad stuff, I’m keeping everything else.”OR an AU where David and Patrick meet as teachers at Schitt's Creek High School.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer & Ronnie, Patrick Brewer/David Rose, Stevie Budd & David Rose
Comments: 157
Kudos: 322





	1. Chapter 1

“In other news, there is a new member of staff joining the team today.” Jocelyn announces to the room in her needlessly cheery tone, “I hope everyone gives a very warm welcome to Patrick Brewer, he will be taking over for Bob Currie in the maths department. His wife has left him, and he has been pushed into a deep depression.”

The whole room seems to wince awkwardly as they look around at each other. Most prominently is David Rose, who stands out in swathes of well-dressed celebrities in New York and does so even more in the small staff room of the Schitt’s Creek High School, where he has been working for the past year. His clothes, while perfectly acceptable for New York, are unusual to see on a professional; his long line t-shirt reaching further than his white and grey leopard print sweater and creating a kind of skirt effect, matched with some very large high-topped sneakers with white platforms.

David naturally demands attention, but he is completely at home in the staff room of this small town school, and seems very comfortable mingling with the townspeople.

On arriving in the town, David had succumbed to some depressive episodes of his own. After failing to gain a job at the supermarket, or at the Blouse Barn due to an unfortunate run in with the owner concerning her tacky clothing choices, he had been pushed by several inhabitants of the town to try out for the new teaching position in the school.

Despite initially assuming he wouldn’t get it, his meeting with Principle Roland Schitt went surprisingly well, and soon enough he was appointed as Mr Rose, history teacher. Fortunately, his classroom was placed just across the hall from his best friend Stevie Budd, who had inherited the motel from her family on the side, but kept up her job as Geography teacher, instead hiring others to run the motel in her absence, most notably Mr Rose, who came on as an enthusiastic partner for the business.

The family had settled in the unusual town with surprising ease, each finding themselves a project to work on to keep themselves sane, and eventually coming to think of the town as a home they could never have seen coming.

Jocelyn is still talking as David re-joins the room. Mornings are still a constant struggle and the necessity to arrive in the school before eight am has caused considerable distress, leading to an over-reliance on coffee and silence. 

“I’m sure you’ll make a lot of friends here Patrick,” she says patting his arm, “your classroom is just across the corridor from Ray’s here, he is teaching business, I’m sure you two will soon become fast friends.”

David watches as Patrick nods politely and holds out a hand to shake with Rays, “it really is a pleasure to meet you Patrick,” he coos annoyingly. David needs more coffee. “It’s such good news to have a new teacher in the department with me. Bob and I used to join forces for some good old-fashioned maths quizzes back in the day, I’m hoping you will be one to follow that tradition.”

Patrick is the epitome of the polite gentleman as he returns the over-enthusiastic hand-shake and smiles charmingly, “It’s nice to meet you Ray, I’m looking forward to it.”

The room is interrupted by the bell ringing before Patrick has a chance to speak to anyone else. Teachers begin filing out of the room, and David heads to the small kitchen sink to clean up his mug before going to teach.

He assumes he’s alone in the room when there’s a light cough behind him which makes him jump, splashing coffee water up into his face and making a light splattering on his sweater. “Ugh!” He complains dramatically, turning around to admonish Ray.

When he turns around however, he freezes, eyes caught on those of the new teacher, who looks positively pleased with himself, “sorry, I just wanted to introduce myself,” he starts, dimples popping out as he smiles, “I’m Patrick Brewer.”

He sticks his hand out to shake, which David returns not realising his hand is still grasping a tea towel he had grabbed to try and quell the damage to his sweater. Patrick appears unphased and shakes his hand through the towel. “David.” he says suspiciously.

“David Rose, you teach history, right?”

“Correct, how did you- how did you know that?”

“Call it intuition.” He responds cheekily, “also your name is on the classroom door I passed when I got lost earlier today.”

“Ah, okay, that makes sense. You teach maths, right?”

“No, actually, I’m teaching art.”

“Oh, I- uh,” David splutters awkwardly, “I just thought that she--”

“I’m joking David, yes I am going to be teaching maths,” Patrick says cheerfully, “I threw you a bit of a change up there, though, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know what that means.” David responds rolling his eyes and placing his now dry mug in one of the top cabinets before turning back, “as fun as this has been, I actually have a class to check on before lessons start so, I’m gonna go.”

“It was nice to meet you David,” Patrick says as he heads down the corridor in the opposite direction.

“Um, yeah.”

*** 

It’s not until the early morning break that David gets a chance to really analyse his conversation with Mr Brewer. He seemed very forward and confident, and he was polite, but something about the easy familiarity of the teasing rubbed him the wrong way.

David tries to focus on the marking he’s sat in front of, he had asked his sophomore class to write an essay about the Vietnam War, and was beginning to regret it as he read another identical essay about American imperialism.

Stevie clears her throat as she enters and takes a seat on top of one of the tables near the front desk.

“You still marking those?” she asks, chewing on some raisins as she leans over to look at the sheets lining the desk in front of him.

“Unfortunately, yes, I actually like to get my marking done on time.”

“If you didn’t give them such long assignments then you wouldn’t have to spend so much time reading them.” She snarks back, throwing a raisin at him and smiling when he looks up at her affronted. “I just got my class to describe an oxbow lake to me, easy-peasy.”

“Hmm, well, some of us actually care about our subjects.”

“Fair point. Have you met the new teacher yet? He seems nice, he’s about our age I think thank God, I don’t know what I would have done we were stuck with another Bob.”

David hums, uncommitting, and continues to scribble notes about grammar and spelling on Jessica Parker’s essay. She did quite well all things considered, although she did get a bit distracted half way through criticising the American government’s involvement in all foreign conflicts. 

“He seems alright I guess,” David admitted. 

“What is it?”

“I don’t know, he made a joke about being an arts teacher? I just got a weird vibe.”

“What kind of joke?”

“Like he effectively said he would never be seen dead doing the arts, he kind of brushed it off. It just kind of annoyed me.”

“Oh, I wasn’t expecting him to be like that. I hope he’s not got some sort of superiority complex. What did he say exactly?”

“I just, I asked if he was teaching maths, and he said no he was teaching art, and then said something about a change up.”

“I’m sorry, I’m just trying to work out when exactly he said that he didn’t respect art teachers?”

David scowls as he puts the lid on his pen, and looks up at her, “I didn’t- I just didn’t like his vibe alright it’s not that big a deal, he made me get coffee water on my sweater, and you know how much I like this one!”

“Okay, and we’re sure that the reason you ‘got a bad vibe’ wasn’t because he was friendly to you, and you are known for being a gremlin early in the morning?”

“Okay, wow, I didn’t invite you in here to be harassed.”

“I don’t think you invited me in here at all.” Stevie says, throwing her packet into the bin as she walks towards the door, “It was very rude of you. I’ll see you at lunch?”

“Yes, yes, now get out of here.” David replies, rolling his eyes and waving a hand at her dismissively. 

*** 

The afternoon passes quickly, David eats his packed sandwich with Stevie in the break room, and it isn’t until ten minutes towards the end of the break that Mr Brewer arrives, looking flustered.

He rushes over to the fridge, pulls out some sort of salad, and opens it, shovelling food into his mouth whilst still stood up in front of the counters.

Stevie looks at David excitedly, who returns a raised eyebrow and judgemental face, before standing up and going to approach Patrick.

Before she gets the chance to say anything, Ray intervenes, moving over and saying something urgently to Patrick, who nods slowly, and they head out of the room together. “Damnit,” Stevie mutters, returning to her seat next to David and stealing a chip from his bag.

He chuckles, and stands up himself, handing her the bag to finish and collecting his stuff. “I have to go and finish that marking from earlier.” He says, and blows her a kiss as he heads towards the door, which she returns with a middle finger. 

He is sat in his classroom for the rest of the break, hastily scribbling down notes, when there is a light knock at the door.

“Hi,” Patrick says sheepishly.

“Hello?” David responds, narrowing his eyes slightly, “what are you--”

“I was looking for you,” Patrick interrupts, “Ray spoke to me about something, I was wondering if I could ask you something?”

David just nods, turning his chair to the side to indicate that he has his attention and gesturing for Patrick to continue.

He enters, and walks over, leaning lightly against the table Stevie generally sat on when she came to bother him, “I- I don’t mean to be presumptuous. I was just having an issue with a student.”

“Mhm, go on.”

“Do you know Connor?” 

“Mm, I do, why- why do you ask?” David says cringing and remembering his uncomfortable interaction with the boy just a year prior, when Jocelyn had roped him in to discuss his sexuality with the boy. David likes to think that he has re-built his relationship with Connor through mutual respect, and leaving the boy alone, but he’s always had a feeling that that conversation had set them off on the wrong foot.

“Well, he’s not been responding to Ray’s teaching apparently, and I- well, I tried to talk to him today because he was being a bit um, disruptive, but he, he won’t talk to me.”

“Who can blame him?” David replies cheekily, “so what, what did you want me to do about it?”

“I was just wondering if you could talk to him maybe, check in and see if everything is alright at- at home, and stuff.”

“Okay,” David draws out the word as he hesitates for a moment, frowning at the man in front of him, “and you thought to come to me, why?”

“Well Ray said--”

“I’m not asking what Ray said, I am asking why you thought that you should just come to me, a man you’ve barely met, about a student, that you don’t know yet, and make assumptions that I should be the one to talk to him. Just because what? Because I wear fashionable clothes instead of straight-legged, mid-range denim, and my hair cut costs more than five dollars?”

Patrick looks suitably admonished and wrings his fingers together awkwardly in front of him, “David, I didn’t mean to make assumptions, I wasn’t trying to- that came out wrong.”

“Hmm, did it?”

Patrick looks at the floor, before sparing a glance up at David who is still sat in his chair, “I was just having problems with a student, and you are the only person I have met other than Ray so far, and so I thought-. Ray said you got on well with Connor, and I didn’t know any better, and I had nobody else to ask.”

David nods for a moment, wincing as he retracks over his harsh response, but maintains his aloof tone, “well, I think that all Connor needs is to be left alone, and to be treated like any other student. God knows that’s all that I wanted when I was his age, and I’m pretty sure that’s what all teenagers really want deep down.”

Patrick nods, looking uncomfortable as he stands up and heads towards the door of the classroom.

“I--" David starts, pursing his lips awkwardly, “I’ll check on him when he comes to my lesson.” He says slowly.

“Thank you, David.” Patrick replies, looking soft for a moment before nodding again, decisively, “I should go back, to my lesson. I’ll er, I’ll catch you around.” He says, leaving and holding the door open for a group of students to walk in.

David curses under his breath as he looks at the time. Scrambling to put the essays he had been marking away in a folder and find the lesson plan for the next hour.

*** 

“I saw Patrick leaving your classroom earlier.” Stevie says from the doorway, “what was that about?”

David jumps, and turns around from where he had been pinning pieces of work to the display at the back of the room, “Oh my God, announce yourself next time you wench! One of these days I’m going to suffer a pulmonary embolism and it will be all your fault.”

“I’m sure Ted would be willing to see you again, he’s done operations on animals before, how different can it be on humans?” She says, taking a seat in the chair behind his desk and sticking her feet up onto it. “That’s assuming you actually have a heart, obviously.”

“Very funny,” he replies, wrinkling up his face at her and pushing the last pin into the wall.

“So, what was Patrick here about?”

“Oh, something about Connor, apparently he’s come back from the Summer break and immediately caused trouble, I said I would check on him next time I have a class with him.”

“Oh, yeah I was gonna ask you about that actually,” she says, “he was acting strange in my class today, not paying attention and distracting his friends, I was gonna ask you to have a word with him.”

“Why- why would you do that? Why does everyone assume I should be the one to talk to him?”

Stevie looks at him disbelievingly, “David, it’s like a commonly known fact that you are his favourite teacher. He doesn’t even try to hide it; I’ve overheard multiple conversations where he tells people that yours is the only class he really cares about.”

David frowns, opening his desk drawer and throwing the pin box back in, “I- Are you sure? I always thought that he was still kind of bitter about that time Jocelyn forced me to come in and talk to him.”

“Hmm, well, you must have grown on him since then I guess.” Stevie says, standing up and slinging her satchel onto her shoulder, “or maybe the fact that you came in before you were even a teacher here to try and help him had more affect than you thought?”

“Perhaps,” David mumbles, switching the lights off as they headed out to the car park. 

As they approach Stevie’s car, he spots Patrick across the way approaching a blue Sedan. He looks up and they catch eye contact for a moment. Patrick waves politely, smiling, as he climbs into his car and drives away.

David looks down when he realises that Stevie hasn’t unlocked the car. “What?” He asks, frustratedly, jiggling the handle childishly.

“Hmm, there was some definite energy there.” She says thoughtfully.

“What energy? There was no, there was no energy, I was just--”

“Oh, there was definitely energy.” She says, finally unlocking the car and slipping into the driver’s seat, “this is gonna be fun for me.”

David sighs loudly, “well, I’m glad you’re finding some amusement in it all.” He says, crossing his arms moodily and staring out of the window as she puts the car in reverse. “Have you met him yet?” He asks suddenly.

“Nah, not yet, I keep trying to, but he seems to rush around a lot. Why?”

“I just- I think I was kind of harsh on him.”

“Oh really? Is this still about the coffee thing, because you and I both know you didn’t really get any on you otherwise you wouldn’t still be wearing it, and you’d be on your way to the dry cleaners by now.”

David scowls, “I was a bit sharp with him about the whole Connor thing.” He said slowly, “I don’t know why, something about him just put me on edge. I want to see if you can sense it as well.”

“Sense what?”

“I don’t know yet, I haven’t worked it out.” Stevie drives in silence the rest of the way to the motel and puts the car in park. “I don’t- you know I don’t live here, anymore right?” David asks, looking around confusedly.

“I’m well aware of that. I still own this place though, and your Dad has been bugging me constantly over text about the fact that we haven’t visited in a while, so here we are.”

David looks mortally betrayed as Stevie climbs out of the car, “this is kidnapping, you do know that, right?” he says, following her.

“Is it really kidnapping if I drive you to work every day even though you have a perfectly good car and your flat is well out of my way?”

“One day that car will die, and I will be stranded in the middle of nowhere with nobody to turn to.” David says moodily as they walk up to his old motel door, “then you’ll be sorry.”

“Mm, sure I will be.”

They walk into the motel room to see Alexis sat at the table in the middle of the room, focusing fully on notebook laid out in front of her.

“Hello Alexis, what’s gotten you focusing so hard?” David asks, moving over to peek over her shoulder at the work.

“Ugh, stop it David. The new teacher won’t let me get away with copying Grace’s work so now I’m like, actually having to learn maths.”

“Mm, high school maths, must be so difficult for you.” 

Alexis groans, shifting to swat at him half-heartedly.

“So, you sense the energy as well then?” Stevie says cheekily from where she had been poking her head through the doorway between the two rooms.

“Stop it!” David hisses.

“Hm, what?”

“David says that Mr Brewer gives him a weird energy, or was it, was it a vibe that you were feeling?” She asks, looking over to him faux-innocently and smiling.

“I didn’t really feel an energy. I tried flirting with him to get out of this work, but it didn’t work, but that might be because he doesn’t agree with teacher-student relationships. Either that or he is newly married, or he’s gay.”

“Hmm, and you’re sure that those are the only three options?” David asks sarcastically, “nothing else, nothing like the fact that he’s maybe just not attracted to women in their thirties that had to go back to high school?”

“Ugh! I’m barely thirty, David!”

“You are thirty-three years old, Alexis!”

“Whatever, no, I didn’t sense any sort of vibe. Maybe if you did, it would mean his attentions were somewhere else.” She says, winking badly out of one eye.

“Absolutely not,” David says dismissively, heading back towards the door, “okay Stevie, so, we visited and they’re not here. Can you please drive me home now?”

Stevie nods, giving in and rooting around for her car keys.

She drops him off at his apartment, driving quickly away, and David lets himself in. He throws his keys into the bowl by his door and collapses heavily onto the dark brown, pleather sofa that he had found at a garage sale, pulling the black and white patterned throw from the back of it to cover himself. 

He had moved out of the motel soon after getting his first pay-cheque from the school. Partly to escape his insane family, but also partly because he was sick of turning up late to school because he couldn’t get to the shower before Alexis.

The apartment was a small studio, to stay in his budget, but one of the nicer ones he’d seen. It had a small kitchenette, with white counters he had convinced Ronnie to put in, to replace the off-yellow ones that had been there before. It was full of little touches, some abstract art on the walls, adding a pop of colour, and several large house plants to fill the space. 

David groans as he feels a weight land on his stomach. He looks down from where his arm had come up to rest over his eyes to look at his scruffy black and white tabby cat, kneading at him and purring in greeting.

“Alright, alright, I get the point.” David says; however, he brings a hand down to rest it affectionately on the cat’s head.

The cat had been coincidental. After a difficult adjustment period to living alone after being in such close quarters with his family for so long, he had mentioned to Stevie that he felt a bit out of sorts, and she had taken it upon herself to force the cat upon him.

It was middle-aged and had been abandoned at the vet clinic. Ted had been looking after it but was looking for an owner. David agreed to foster the cat as a tester, to see if he was willing to risk the fur covering his jumpers and it had never left again.

He’d named it Freddie, and after some minor disagreements about sleeping and pooping arrangements, he had completely fallen in love with it, growing extremely affectionate to the great amusement of his entire family.

David sighs as he feels Freddie settle in on top of him, curling up and huffing warm breath onto David’s face.

He could take a nap, he supposes, and falls asleep quickly, his dreams filled with warm brown eyes and teasing glances.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mr Rose and Mr Brewer learn to see eye-to-eye, and Stevie never helps.

The next week is a slow one for David. He manages to avoid further interaction with Patrick, and it isn’t until the following Monday that he is forced to see him again.

He has a free period first that day, in which he usually catches up with some work, however having slept fitfully the night before, he feels the need for a pick-me-up and heads straight to the staff room, waving goodbye to Stevie who rushes towards her first lesson.

“Good morning, David.” Patrick says pleasantly from where he is sat on one of the fabric seats, his feet up on the coffee table in front of him, and laptop open on his knees.

“What are you- I thought I was the only one with a free period this morning?” David asks rudely, opening the fridge door and rooting around in it, finding a bottle of juice with a white sticker label on it saying Stevie, and taking it out.

“Nope, I have the whole morning off today.” Patrick replies, watching him with an eagle eye as he sits down nearby, taking a small sip of the juice and placing it on the coffee table between them.

“Oh, that’s- okay, fair enough.” David splutters, turning away from him and opening his laptop bag to catch up on some work.

They sit beside each other in companionable silence for a while, the only sounds filling the room being the clattering of keyboards and the distant sounds of a lesson taking place.

David reaches absent-mindedly for his juice and is surprised to find it no longer sat on the table in front of him, he looks up at Patrick who is taking a sip from the drink and looking at him directly as if waiting for a response.

“Um, is that my juice?” David asks dumbly, mouth open slightly in shock.

“Er, no, technically I think it’s Stevie’s juice, I read the little label here and assumed it was just available for anyone.”

“Hmm, it’s just that usually I don’t share beverages with people.”

“Oh, oh right.” Patrick says, pausing for a moment, “except for with Stevie, I guess?”

“Well, I wasn’t actually going to share the juice with her, I was just, er, going to drink it.”

Patrick nods as if in understanding, the bottle still held in his hand, “Wow, well that is shocking news.”

“Hmm, well, fortunately, you look like you’ve got a clean mouth, so--” he reaches for the bottle, pushing the laptop off his lap in order to push himself up on one knee when Patrick moves it away from him.

“Sorry, a clean mouth?” Patrick asks through laughter, shuffling away to prevent David from grabbing the drink.

“Yeah, some people have nice, clean mouths, and some people have sloppy mouths.” He replies, continuing to reach over Patrick, and placing a hand on his knee to balance him as they both laugh.

“Yeah? Well then you have a sloppy mouth.” Patrick gasps through laughs, David almost on his lap in his attempt to get the juice back.

Suddenly the door to the staff room opens, and Ray walks in, “Oh excuse me gentlemen, I didn’t mean to--”

David moves back to his seat quietly, and pulls the laptop back in an attempt to act casual, whilst Patrick runs a hand down the front of his shirt as if brushing out wrinkles, “Hi Ray, how can we help?”

“I just had a class with Connor, he’s been disruptive, and he’s just left the classroom. I didn’t know--”

“Where did he go?” David asks, looking up from the screen and frowning his impressive eyebrows in concern.

“I think he’s still on the grounds, I thought I saw him head towards the field. Though of course I might be wrong--”

David sighs, standing up and putting his laptop back in the bag, abandoning it where it lay on the floor and checking for his phone, “I’ll go and get him.” He says slowly.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Patrick asks, “or, I could go talk to him, if you--”

“It’s alright, thank you though.” David says, rushing out the door.

He finds Connor sat on the ground, at the foot of a tree by the field, and silently curses the fact he’d worn his expensive suit trousers to work that morning, as he joins him on the ground with his knees drawn to his chest.

“What are you doing out here?” He asks quietly, looking off into the distance to take some of the pressure off.

“I just- ugh, I can’t explain it.” Connor mutters, “you wouldn’t understand.”

“Hmm, that might be true,” David says, nodding, “but if you tell me what it is then I can at least try and find someone that does understand, or I can just listen, whatever you need.”

There’s silence for a moment, whilst Connor mulls over his words, “I just really want to get out of here.” He mutters, “I hate it here, I hate this town, and I have a whole year until I can get out, and even then, I don’t know if I’m going to even get into college with my grades.”

David purses his lips thoughtfully, “well running out of class isn’t going to help your grades I’m afraid, as tempting as it may be, especially out of one of Mr Butani’s classes.”

This earns a small snort, as Connor wipes his eyes with his sleeves.

“What college are you trying to get in to?”

“NYU, I just, I think I’ll fit in better there.”

“Perhaps,” David says simply, “it’s an amazing city, I lived there for a while in my twenties and early thirties.”

“So that would have been a long time ago then?” Connor asks, smiling cheekily.

“Alright, none of that.” David replies, smirking in response, and sneaking a glance at the boy next to him, “you know, you will get into NYU if you work for it, you’re a smart boy, and all of us are here to help, we want you to succeed at this, you know that?”

“I know, I just, it’s so overwhelming, this is such a horrible feeling, that the things I’ll do in the next couple of months will decide my future happiness, it’s terrifying, and nobody else seems to feel the same.”

“What do you mean?”

“My parents, and my friends, they don’t understand why I’m so desperate to go, to escape and get away.”

“Well,” David says slowly, frowning, “it depends what you’re trying to get away from. If you want to go to New York then you should be running towards it, not away from here.”

“I- I know, I just, everyone seems so satisfied with this,” he says, gesturing around, “don’t you ever want to leave?”

David frowns for a moment, “maybe one day, but I’ve done my fair share of running away, if I leave here it’ll be because I’m going towards something. Until then, I’m happy here.”

Connor nods sadly, looking down at his hands clasped in front of him.

“I’m not telling you not to go to New York, in fact, the opposite. You’re young, the city is amazing, and it will be an amazing experience for you, I just,” he falters for a minute, trying to find the words, “don’t burn all your bridges before you leave.”

“I- I, I know, I just--”

“Maybe, you can try and enjoy this year, for all the opportunities it will provide you with, and all the memories you’ll make. You’ll miss it when you’re gone, believe it or not, and you’ll regret wishing the year away.”

“Okay, thank you Mr Rose.” He says, turning to face his teacher with wide, expressive eyes.

“Anytime.”

Connor sighs, rubbing his hands over his face before moving to stand, waiting whilst David follows, considerably slower and more awkwardly. He looks at his phone and winces, “class started ten minutes ago.” He says to Connor, who looks apologetic, but happier than he had been before, “come on, you’re meant to be in my class second period aren’t you?”

They head to the classroom together, and David barrels in, apologising profusely and coming face-to-face with Patrick Brewer stood behind his desk.

“I- uh, um, you’re, hi.” He splutters.

“Hey, I said I had all morning off didn’t I, thought I’d cover for you for a bit.” Patrick says, smiling warmly and moving towards the door, “I brought your laptop and stuff it’s all there.” He says, gesturing towards the table.

“I, uh, thank you, for doing that, you really didn’t have to.” David says slowly, shock still clear on his face.

“Wasn’t a problem, happy to help,” Patrick says, winking (badly) and grabbing his satchel, “I’ll see you at lunch, maybe?”

“Um, sure, of course, see you at lunch.”

“Bye,” he says, slipping round the door.

“Ciao,” David says with a wave, immediately wincing and covering his face with one hand in embarrassment, “not a word.” He says sharply, pointing a finger around at the small room of seniors who are looking at him curiously.

They turn back to their books and David settles into his seat, muttering the word ciao to himself in disbelief. It isn’t until he sits down that he notices the blue blazer slung across the back of his chair, warming his shoulders slightly.

He runs a finger across the side of it and raises his eyebrows, before resolutely turning back to the class, some of who are looking back up from their books again, eagerly.

“Right you little demons, who wants to tell me about the Declaration of Independence?”

***

The morning goes considerably more smoothly from that point on, with classes passing quickly, and no other need to ruin his trousers.

David heads to break when the bell rings, reminding the last students to hand in their essays at their next class.

He flops into one of the break room seats clumsily, sighing and rubbing a tired hand over his eyes, only looking up when Stevie waves his packed salad in front of him. Before he can grab it, she yanks it away, “you know, I might keep this one for myself.” She says nonchalantly, “call it payback for my juice that you drank.”

“How dare you accuse me!” David exclaims, reaching out and grabbing his salad from her hands, opening it and digging in, “you don’t know that it was me that drank it, could’ve been anyone!”

Suddenly, Patrick is there, taking a seat next to David and smiling politely, “You must be Stevie.” He says, as she sits down on the seat opposite them.

“Yes,” she says, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

“I’m sorry, I drank your juice.” Patrick says, opening his own lunch and stabbing a fork in it, “I would have put it back once I realised but I wasn’t sure if you’d agree with David about my clean mouth or not--"

“--okay,” David sighs, as Stevie laughs, “I have had too much of a long, stressful day, to have to deal with an unbalanced social dynamic here.”

They both laugh again, looking back at David who is pouting into his salad.

“I’m Patrick,” he says, offering a hand to shake across the coffee table, “it’s nice to meet you.”

“You too, you don’t seem like the monster I was expecting.”

“Hah, thanks I guess? Um, why were you expecting a monster?”

Stevie opens her mouth to respond, but is beaten by David, “oh, you know, never can trust a maths teacher.” He says cheekily, dimples popping out as Patrick laughs in response.

“Mm, can’t be too careful I guess.” Patrick replies.

They chat for a while, and David notices Patrick starting to shift uncomfortably. He keeps rubbing his arms slightly over his thin button-up, and it is then that he remembers the jacket still sat on his chair.

“Do you want me to close the window?” He asks quietly when Stevie is distracted by Ronnie.

Patrick nods thankfully as David moves to do it, bumping into his side slightly, by accident, as he reaches up behind where their seats are placed to do it. When he sits back down Patrick’s cheeks are flushed red, and he isn’t looking directly at David.

“Better?”

“Mhm, thanks.”

“Do you want me to go get--”

“No!” Patrick says quickly, “no, I mean, uh, I don’t mind, coming by, to collect it later. My fault for forgetting it, I guess.”

“Okay.” David says slowly, frowning but accepting the response and turning his attention back to the conversation.

***

David is in his classroom at his desk, as usual, at the end of the day when there is another soft knock on his door. He looks up to see Patrick hovering, as if nervous.

“Hi,” he breaths out, putting his pen down and standing up, slipping the jacket off the back of the chair and holding it out towards Patrick, who walks forwards and takes it from him carefully, “there you are.”

“Thank you.”

They smile at each other for a moment shyly, “I wanted to, uh, thank you again, for earlier. You didn’t have to cover for my class, they would have been fine on their own, and I wouldn’t have gotten in trouble for anything.”

“Anytime David.” Patrick replies fondly, “I was hoping you were going to thank me for covering for you with Stevie, but that’s fine too.”

David’s lip quirks slightly, “you didn’t have to do that either. I’d be careful if I were you, I might get comfortable with your covering me and end up doing something really reckless.”

Patrick takes a step forward, dipping his head slightly and looking up through his eyelashes. “Something really reckless, huh? Like what?”

And Patrick was, flirting. He was like, actually flirting, in the middle of the school, with a guy that had been nothing but rude to him since they met. David flushed, but didn’t take a step back, stuttering for a bit before opting to laugh, “you’ll have to wait and see won’t you.” He says after a moment.

“I look forward to that, David.” Patrick smiles, showing his teeth before leaning back away and letting the atmosphere in the room cool down. “I also, I wanted to apologise for the other day,” he says, rounding the desk and leaning against the table comfortably, “I really didn’t mean to imply anything by asking you, I’d just heard--”

“You don’t have to apologise.” David shakes his head, “I’m sorry I was so harsh about it, it wasn’t necessary, and I really didn’t mean to--”

“How about we start over?”

“What--”

“Hello David Rose, my name is Patrick Brewer, I am the new maths teacher and I am looking forward to teaching here and getting to know you better.” Patrick says, standing up to attention and sticking a hand out.

David doesn’t even try to hide his smile as he reaches for the hand, “nice to meet you.” He says, “does this mean we can pretend that every embarrassing thing that happened today didn’t?”

“Oh, absolutely not.” Patrick says, “just the bad stuff, I’m keeping everything else.”

Stevie arrives at the door, looking between them suspiciously and eying up where their hands are still clasped together tightly. They both step back and cough lightly, looking away from each other.

“You ready to go?” Stevie asks, one eyebrow raised.

“Mhm, sure, let’s.”

They head out to the carpark together as a group, and separate as they leave the building doors, David and Stevie heading towards her car whilst Patrick veers off to his.

“See you tomorrow Patrick.” Stevie says as they part ways.

“Bye Stevie, Ciao David!” He replies over his shoulder.

“Oh my God.” David mutters, rushing towards the car.

***

They head straight back to Stevie’s, both clambering out of the car, David nodding as Stevie complains about a difficult student in her class and Stevie offering the same reaction as David complains about the weekend spent alone in his apartment whilst she was working at the motel.

“You could have dropped in to visit, David.” Stevie says as they settle on her couch, glasses of wine in hand and pizza ordered.

“I could have, yes, but that would have meant interacting with my family, and that never ends well.” He says with an eye roll for added effect.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did.”

“Why are you avoiding your family?”

“I’m not--”

“David!” Stevie interrupts, “you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, I’m just, trying to understand. Your Dad keeps asking about you, and I don’t know what to tell him anymore.”

“I’m just- it’s dumb, you won’t understand it.”

“You sound like Connor right now, try me?”

David sighs, taking a long sip of wine and glaring at Stevie over the rim of his glass. “It’s just, they all still want to leave, like it’s all they talk about.”

“Do you not want to leave anymore?”

“I don’t know!” David says, flustered, “maybe? I just, I like being here, with you, and it’s not like I can leave in the middle of a school year, and I- I like my job? I think? Which is crazy because it’s not even like I’m that good at it.”

“You are good at it, David, stop saying that.”

“I think maybe, maybe I’m like, preparing myself for them to leave, and for me to stay.”

“David, they’re not going anywhere yet, why wouldn’t you try to spend as much time with them as possible?”

“I don’t know! I don’t! I just, I’ve settled here now, haven’t I. I have an apartment and a job and a car--”

“That you don’t drive.” Stevie interjects.

“Not the point,” David replies, narrowing his eyes, “and I have the cat to think about now. Whereas they’re still in the motel, they’re not settling they’re just waiting, and I don’t think they understand that I’m not, I’m not waiting anymore.”

Stevie rests a loose arm on David’s shoulder. “I can’t pretend I’m not happy to hear that.”

“Mm. You, Stevie Budd, have done a very good job of emotionally trapping me here, and I do not appreciate it. I’ve missed a lot of opportunities thanks to you.”

“Oooh but think of all the opportunities there are here!” She crows, leaning over teasingly, “talking of opportunities, what did I walk in on earlier?”

“What- what do you mean?”

“David, you know exactly what I mean.”

“I- I don’t know! Nothing!”

“Then why do you seem so flustered?” She asks, mock concerned, “do I need to take you to Ted again? Is it another heart attack?”

“Okay, that’s not funny.”

“I’m sorry, I’m just curious, I thought you got a bad vibe from him? Now you’re teasing each other, and he comes to your classroom at the end of the day? I thought maybe your bad vibe was maybe something else, maybe a good vibe?”

David looks at her critically, “Hmm, he’s a maths teacher. He wears tweed blazers to work and has that whole innocent schoolboy vibe. He is not into me.”

“Hmm,” Stevie hesitates, “but you’re--”

“I swear to God if you don’t stop this conversation now, I am never going to talk to you again.”

“Okay, David.” Stevie says smiling, “want another glass?” She asks, already pouring.

“Ooh, a little more of that please.” David says when she goes to stop, reaching out and pushing her hand to encourage her to add more to the glass, “thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really enjoying writing this one so I hope you are enjoying reading it!
> 
> Let me know what you want to see next!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of unfortunate events for David.

Life continued, much as it ever did; with wine nights at Stevie’s, and rides to work, and meals with his parents (more of those now that Stevie had made her point - although of course she also had to attend.) David was comfortable, he bought a new armchair for his apartment, a plush grey, with a plush red, black, and grey cushion placed on it for Freddie to sleep on.

Then one day, a Tuesday in early November, he wakes up to his alarm. He blinks, and yawns, as he usually does, groans in frustration as he reaches blindly for his phone and wakes up. He pads across the cold floor, has a quick shower, and dresses in one of his favourite fluffy black sweaters, with red and white cuffs.

However, when he heads over to the kitchen, emptying a can of wet food into an ornate black cat bowl decorated with the words _Wild Aloof Rebel_ in white block print, and placing it neatly on the floor, there is no padding of tiny footsteps. He frowns; it’s unusual but nothing to panic about. He heads over to the armchair and find that Freddie isn’t in his usual position on the chair. He checks the sofa, the bed, under the sofa and bed, behind the bookshelf, in the shower, and comes up with nothing.

David’s heart rate increases tenfold. He is already an anxious person, and the idea of losing his cat, one that he had reluctantly grown to love, physically fills his body with panic.

He searches the apartment from top to bottom, looking in every crevice and gap, under the throw cushions, stripping the bed of its sheets, all to no avail.

He takes deep, calming breaths, hand resting gently over his stomach as he thinks about an action plan. He notices the window cracked slightly open, over the fire escape, and puts together that Freddie must have climbed out. So, he opens it wider and places the food by the window, praying that it won’t tempt in any wild raccoons.

His emotional frenzy is interrupted by a sharp knock at the door, which he opens to reveal Stevie, stood there looking murderous, “what the hell, David? What’s taking you so long?”

“I- uh, Freddie must have gotten out, I don’t, I don’t know what to do in this situation.”

Stevie looks surprised, and then guilty, “oh shit, sorry. Um, I don’t know, how did he get out?”

“He must have gone out the window last night, I’ve left food. That’s a good idea, right?”

“I mean, yeah I think so. I’ll text Ted and ask him.”

David sits at the edge of the couch as she types and wrings his hands anxiously. “Okay here we go, he says to keep the window open, apparently he’ll probably come back within the day and he’ll need to be able to get back in the way he went out. He says to text him if he’s still not back by tonight and he’ll post a notice at the vet clinic for you in case anyone brings him in.”

“Brings him in?” David screeches dramatically, “but he doesn’t like strangers! What if he bites them and they put him down? Or worse, what if he’s been hit by a car? Anything could have happened!”

“Okay, David? I need you to calm down, Freddie is fine, he probably heard a noise in the night and went out to find it and will be back here by the time you get back.”

David huffs as he throws his marking and laptop hastily in a bag, “nobody will know how he likes his food cut up, or that he doesn’t like to sleep in the bed with people. Nobody will know that Stevie!”

After some placating words, Stevie is able to coax him out and into the car, but his hair is untameable from his hands running through it. They head straight to their classrooms, running slightly late and waving at each other as they enter opposite doors across the corridor.

“Good morning, Mr Rose.” Patrick says cheerfully as he enters.

“Um, hi, Mr Brewer.” David replies, extremely aware of the numerous student eyes watching their every movement, “what are you, what are you doing here?”

Patrick and David had settled into a comfortable routine for their relationship. Each took turns in pushing the boundaries; standing an inch too close, or brushing imaginary lint of each other’s shoulders, or one memorable time David removed a non-existent eye lash from Patrick’s cheek, leading to some intense eye contact and then awkward coughing. But every single time, they would step back and the moment would end with one of them kicking themselves, and both of them feeling extremely flustered.

David remained clueless of Patrick’s advances however, opting to believe that his flustered expression and continued conversations in the staff room, in the dinner hall, in the car park, and in his classroom were simply the signs of a new teacher who didn’t know many people and wanted to be friendly.

Stevie (rightfully) questioned why he hadn’t been turning up in her classroom, and also pointed out that he had been at the school for coming up to two months at this point so wasn’t particularly in need of friendship, but David tuned all of that out.

It didn’t make sense for Patrick to like him like that, and therefore he didn’t. Simple as that. It was a sweet little crush that he was feeling, and he wasn’t going to start reading too deeply into it and end up having his heart broken.

And yet…

“I didn’t see you in the break room this morning, so I figured you must be running late and I thought I’d bring you a coffee,” Patrick says, gesturing towards the desk where David’s favourite mug sat, with some steaming liquid in it, accompanied by two cookies.

“You didn’t have to do that.” David murmurs, screwing up his face but reaching for the drink and taking a desperate sip.

“No, I, I wanted to.” Patrick responds, eyes zeroed in on David’s lips.

The class has gone back to chatting amongst themselves when Patrick steps slightly closer and lowers his voice.

“I was actually wondering if--” The bell rings, and the clatter of chairs against tables fills the room, Patrick looks down at his watch guiltily, “I need to get to my class,” he mutters, “but I- will I see you at lunch?”

“Mhm, sure, I’ll be there.”

“Great, I’ll uh, I’ll see you then.”

He leaves with the students, glancing over his shoulder one last time as he exits the room, and David is left alone.

His class enters, another group of seniors, all in bad moods as the stress of their final year ramps up and they have begun receiving acceptance and rejection letters in the mail.

“Okay, okay, you horrible lot.” David says, commanding the room effortlessly as he perches against the front of his desk, “if you can open your books to page 57, we’ll be discussing the Emancipation Proclamation and how much it changed the lives of African-Americans in the-- Chelsea, are you seriously sat on your phone right now?”

The blonde girl towards the back of the classroom snaps her head up and smiles guiltily. “Sorry Mr Rose, I just got a text from Connor, he’s in Mr Brewers class with Alexis.”

“Is that really more interesting than this lesson?” David asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m sorry sir, it’s just he says that Mr Brewer just told Alexis off. I’ll put it away.”

“What- what did she do?” He asks, slightly breathlessly.

“I’m not sure, Connor didn’t say.” Chelsea takes a little peek at her phone, “he either must have got caught on his phone or something is happening because he’s not responding.”

David hesitates for a second before snapping back and shaking his head and hand at the same time, “okay, okay enough excitement for today. You can put your phone away now for the rest of the lesson please.”

Chelsea nods, and puts it in her bag, opening her book in front of her and turning her full attention to David. The whole class appears to follow her lead and he is met by a sea of young eyes.

“Right,” he says, clapping his hands together, “let’s talk about slavery.”

***

David ends that double period with his seniors feeling wrung out, their stress seeming to transfer onto him as he spends more time with them. In the break, he types out a quick text to the landlady of his apartment asking her to check in and see if Freddie had returned, and heads across the corridor to Stevie’s classroom.

She is sat in there at the desk, books open in front of her, but head bowed to look at her phone instead, she jumps when David clears his throat and slips the phone onto the desk.

“Can nobody look up from their phones today?” David asks irritably, “what on earth is going on?”

“Ugh, you scared me.” Stevie huffs dramatically, “did you hear about Alexis?”

“No, well, Chelsea said something in the lesson, but she didn’t know much. Why, what’s happening?”

“Apparently she had a falling out with Patrick about something in front of the whole class. I’m not totally sure on the details but it sounds pretty nasty, apparently there was some shouting.”

“Hmm, from him or from her?” David asks, curious about how interested he should be.

Stevie just chuckles, “I’m not sure, I suppose we will find out at lunch.” She swivels on her chair and turns to face him, “what are you doing for your free period?”

“I was going to go and check on the apartment to see if Freddie is back yet, and then pick up a grilled cheese from the café and come back here to meet you, why?”

“Can you please get me a milkshake? I’ve been craving it all morning.”

“Do I need to check your eyes?” David asks teasingly, gesturing for her car keys which she chucks at him un-ceremoniously.

“It’s not the munchies you bitch. Just for that you can get me some fries whilst you’re out as well.”

“Anything for you my dear.” David says, laughing as she gives him a finger and heading out of the school to her car.

***

He checks the apartment, which is still echoingly empty without Freddie’s presence, and stops by the café to pick up the food order all within a half hour, returning to the school and heading straight to the break room.

He takes a seat and pulls out some marking to complete to fill the time, sighing and checking his phone sporadically in the hope of an update on his cat.

He’s in the middle of writing notes on one of Connor’s essays when his phone lights up with Alexis’ contact photo and starts vibrating. He picks up, his mouth full of cheese and bread and mumbles a greeting.

“What happened to you?” He asks through his mouthful.

He hears sniffles in response, and his heart softens slightly in sympathy for his sister. “I just, I’m not cut out for this David, Mr Brewer said so himself, he effectively told me I might as well not bother graduating high school!”

“He said that?” David asks, frowning thoughtfully and swallowing, “are you sure he didn’t mean it a different way?”

“Ugh, I don’t know David, but he embarrassed me in front of a whole classroom of teenagers! I didn’t, it wasn’t like I was even doing anything!”

“Okay, Alexis? I need you to calm down and tell me what he said.”

“We just, we had an argument, he kept bugging me about this work that he wanted me to do, and he was super pushy about it. I told him he seemed tense and he just blew up! He yelled at me in front of everyone and--” she blows her nose noisily, making David wince in disgust, “and he basically said there was no point in me being here since I’m clearly not going to even end up graduating.”

“Okay, look, I’ll talk to him Alexis. Are you going to be okay, or?”

She sniffles a bit again, and hesitates, “yeah I’ll be fine, I had a half day anyway so I’m just gonna call Dad and go home.”

“Do you want to go back to my apartment for a while?”

“Could I?” Alexis whispers.

“Yeah sure, the key is under the mat just let yourself in.” David says as gently as possible, “but don’t make a mess, and when you’re there can you check on--”

“Yeah, I’ll see if Freddie is there, Ted texted me this morning. Thank you, David.”

David hangs up, frowning slightly as he finishes his lunch and throws the wrappers in the bin. He quickly scoops up his work and throws it messily into his bag as he hears the bell ring for lunch, rushing back to his (thankfully) empty classroom and making himself comfortable.

He’s just getting back into marking when he notices that he had taken Stevie’s milkshake and food bag with him. He sighs pathetically, picking it up and pulling a childish face before heading out of the room. Just as he heads out of the room, however, he runs headfirst into Patrick who is loitering outside.

The milkshake splashes up over the both of them, hitting Patrick the worst and covering his blue button up in pink liquid, “Oh my God!” David exclaims, reaching a hand out, as if to quell the damage.

Patrick is silent as he looks down at himself in shock and then back up at David.

David immediately strips off his expensive sweater, pulling Patrick with him down the corridor and into the staff toilets. He spreads the jumper out, and runs cold water over it quickly, gently massaging the small spatters of milkshake off of the wool and clucking in disgust.

Once satisfied, he turns to Patrick, who is looking pale and shaky as he looks at David’s arms, now on display more than ever before. David coughs at him, grabbing a paper towel and rinsing it under the water before lifting it to wipe across the stain on Patrick’s chest.

He freezes as the intimacy of the situation becomes clear to him, as he gently rubs against Patrick’s muscles, unable to prevent himself from feeling the strength hidden underneath.

“I um--” he mumbles, handing the towel to Patrick who finishes the job.

“Yeah I can just--"

He makes quick work of the stain, leaving a dark wet circle across his front which he tries to pat dry with more towels before giving up completely.

“I’m sorry, I was in a rush to--”

“I just wanted to talk to you--”

They both pause, looking at the other carefully for a while, before David continues. “I just had to take that down to Stevie, um, I’ll text her.”

Patrick holds the toilet door open as they both exit, and slip back into David’s classroom, closing the door firmly behind him.

“I, um- I heard about what happened with Alexis. Is that what you wanted to talk about?’ David asks as he puts his phone away and leans against the desk.

“Oh of course you did, everyone seems to know about it! Who told you?” Patrick cries frustratedly, taking David by surprise.

“Um, Stevie may have, mentioned it. You didn’t have to yell at her like that you know, I know she’s difficult, God knows I’m glad that I don’t have to teach her, but she really is trying to--”

“Well she really was trying in that lesson.” Patrick says with a scoff, looking more and more annoyed by the moment.

“I- okay, there’s no need for that, she said that she--” David replies, his own temper rising in the wake of a truly awful day.

“Oh great, and she’s gone to you to tell you that I was being unreasonable I suppose?”

“I- no! She didn’t, she was just upset, she’s having a shit time of it at the moment and she happens to be my sister.”

“I know! That’s exactly what this is about!”

“What, what is it about Patrick? You’re not making any sense!”

They’re both breathing slightly heavier now, and Patrick is going slightly red in the face in his frustration. He turns on his heel and heads towards the door, “you know what, I don’t have time for this.” He says harshly, “I didn’t- it’s been a long enough day without having to explain to you what you already know. Thanks, David.”

The door slams behind him and David sits heavily in his desk seat, frowning and placing his sweater in a plastic bag. His phone rings with a text from Stevie.

_12:51 Boo about the milk shake, but do you want me to take the sweater to the laundry during my free period next?_

**12:51 You’re my best friend.**

**12:52 Yes please.**

***

David is miserable for the rest of the afternoon. He’s cold without his sweater, having forgotten to replace his spare one after the last food emergency, his argument with Patrick is still echoing around his head, and he is starting to get a stress headache.

On top of all that, Alexis had texted earlier to say that there was still no sign of Freddie at the apartment.

So, his bad mood worsened, and he snapped at a couple of students who looked startled at the response from their usual very chill teacher.

He leaves the school feeling sick to his stomach, and feeling a migraine coming on. When Stevie drops him off at the apartment, she taps his shoulder in a comforting way, and allows him to get out of the car without any unnecessary conversation.

He walks into the apartment to find Alexis sat on the couch sideways, books out in her lap. She turns her head to the door as he enters and smiles apologetically up at him.

“Hey, sorry still no sign,” she says sympathetically.

“Hmm,” David replies, dumping his bag by the door and moving to sit down where her feet are, pushing them back slightly, “Is that my sweater?”

Alexis cringes apologetically, “sorry! The apartment was cold because the window is still open, and I wore a chiffon blouse today.”

“Your ability to break the dress-code constantly amazes me.” David says, rolling his eyes but smiling despite himself. “Maybe if you followed a few more of the rules, then you would stop having arguments with Mr Brewer.”

“Ugh, why would you bring that up right now, David?”

“It was like, school-wide news within minutes Alexis, I think we need to talk about it.”

“Why does it affect you?” She complains pathetically, pouting and looking away.

“Um, because you happen to be my sister and Mr Brewer happens to be my- um, my colleague. Plus, I may have spoken to him about it after you left and so now, I’m involved, so I need to know what happened.”

“You know what happened!”

“Not really, you just said he got mad at you about some work or something? But from his reaction there seems to have been something more than that going on.”

“I’m seriously not talking to you about this right now, David. I’m done with this work anyway; I’m heading back to the motel to see mom and dad.” She huffs as she swings her feet off the seat and stands clumsily in her wedged shoes.

“Okay, I--” David starts as she flounces out of the apartment. His eyebrows furrow in realisation. “Alexis! You bitch I didn’t say you could take that sweater!”

He thinks he hears some mumbled response, but Alexis doesn’t return to the apartment and David just sighs in resignation, feeling cold and lonely without Freddie to keep him company.

He groans as he stands, heading over to the kitchen to boil some pasta for dinner, and playing mindlessly on his phone as it boils. The phone rings all of a sudden, and he picks up.

“Please say something good.” David says in lieu of a greeting.

“Nice to talk to you too.” Stevie says, “I gather Freddie hasn’t shown up yet?”

“Nope, nothing.” He replies, stirring the pasta in the water with his shoulder holding the phone to his ear, “can you text Ted for me, I don’t have his number.”

“Yeah sure, I’m on it.”

“Thank you.”

“Did you hear about what happened with Alexis and Patrick today, then?” She asks.

“Did you really just call me and remind me of my missing cat, who is possibly dead by now, just so you could gossip to me about my sister?”

David hears a snort down the line, and narrows his eyes, “Freddie isn’t dead, he’s made of stronger stuff than that.” She says in a comforting tone, “so I gather you did hear about it then? You must be pretty annoyed with her.”

“Er, no, why would I be annoyed with her? I thought he yelled at her?”

“Oh, well, I mean, yeah he did, but did you not hear what it was about?”

“No! What was it about, Stevie?” David asks, voice rising in frustration.

Stevie hesitates and David grows more impatient, turning the heat off and pouring his pasta into a strainer as he waits for her response. “Bob sent me a video from the argument, do you just want me to send it to you?”

“Er, why on earth does Bob have a video of it? Isn’t he too busy being depressed? Surely he wasn’t even there?”

“Oh, no he wasn’t. Gwen’s nephew, Eric, was in the class, and apparently he recorded some of it and Bob sent it to me.”

David pauses from where he is taking out some pre-made sauce from the microwave, “okay, who the hell is Gwen?” He asks dramatically, waving a fork around in the air.

“Look, do you want to see the video or not.”

He sighs, “yes I would like to see the video, very much.” He mutters as he plates up his dinner and sticks a forkful of pasta and sauce into his mouth.

“Okay, I’ll send it.” Stevie says, going quiet for a moment, “just- just don’t overreact when you see it okay?”

“You’re building this up to be much worse than it is, I’m sure.”

“Hmm, okay, text me when you’ve watched it I guess. Either way, I’ll pick you up tomorrow?”

“Many thanks,” he chirps sarcastically as he hangs up the phone.

David scoops another mouthful of food into his mouth as he scowls at the empty room, the carbs doing little to quell his bad mood.

His phone pings as a message comes through.

_19:16 Here it is, don’t overreact._

David procrastinates on watching the video for the rest of the evening, focusing his efforts instead on washing the dishes, and cleaning the apartment, as well as replacing the food in Freddie’s bowl for fresh stuff, opening the window even wider.

Another text comes through.

_20:47 Hey bud, hope you’re doing okay. I’ve put a message on the noticeboard about Freddie. If he’s not back soon we can put signs around the neighbourhood._

_20:48 Let me know if I can do anything!_

He looks pitifully at the message from Ted, heart aching slightly as he thought about his lost cat and curls up on his bed under several high-quality cable-knitted blankets with a mug of tea in one hand and his phone in the other.

He clicks onto the video, cringing in indecision before pressing play.

It is filmed at an awkward angle, the camera is shaking as the student filming clearly tries to keep their phone hidden, but the voices are pretty clear. It seems to have been started half-way through the argument, however.

_“Oh my God, Patrick, just loosen up for once it was one piece of work.”_

_“Do not call me that in my class, Alexis! I need you to do your work just like everyone else in this class does, what are you doing here otherwise?”_

_“Um, I do the work usually, why are you being so uptight?”_

_“I’m not having this discussion with you right now. Take a seat so I can start the lesson.”_

_“Okay, um, first of all, you were the one who was late to this class. I assume it was because you were visiting David again?”_

The video shifts, and Patrick and Alexis come into view. Alexis is stood with her back to the camera, but David knows that tone of voice well, and knows that she is trying to get on Patrick’s nerves now and get him to lash out. It’s a side of Alexis that David sees often and is well accustomed to dealing with. Patrick, however, has his hands on his hips and is looking like he is struggling to stay calm.

_“You need to stop using our first names in class, Alexis!”_

_“Oh my God, maybe if you just screwed my brother finally, like you have been desperate to do since you two met, you’d be less uptight!”_

At this, gasps around the room can be heard. David sits there with a hand over his mouth in shock, eyes stuck on the video as he watches Patrick’s expression turn from merely frustrated, to positively murderous.

 _“Do not talk about him like that.”_ He snarls, _“If you can’t show the due amount of respect then I can’t have you in this class. Go and sit in your home room and get some work done.”_

_“Ugh! You can’t just--”_

_“Or don’t, I genuinely couldn’t care less right now.”_

Alexis appears to stomp her feet a little in protest but turns and heads to the door. The video ends frozen on Patrick, who is slumped against his desk, with his head in his hands.

David feels his gut clench in guilt, and fury at his sister. He sends a message to Stevie telling her he’s watched it, and that he’ll talk to her about it tomorrow and turns his phone off, plugging it in on his bed side table and settling down into the bed, wrapped tightly in his covers to counter the chill from the open window.

He lets a couple of rogue tears slip out of his eyes as the stress of the day settles on him, and lies there, restless, sleep evading him as he overthinks.

He thinks about Alexis, who had been so childish and mean behind his back but accepted his tenderness in response. He thinks of Patrick, who had come to his classroom looking so anxious only to be met with David’s judgement, and a shirt full of milkshake. He thinks of his cat, lost and alone for the second time in his life, probably feeling abandoned and rejected again.

It’s all too much, and he falls into a fitful sleep, dreading the week to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David confronts Alexis, and tries to apologise to Patrick.

The rest of the week passes torturously. David is in a demonically bad mood, his cat still hasn’t turned up, plus he’s ruined what was potentially going to turn into his second real friendship he had ever earned in his life.

On the Thursday afternoon, he heads to the motel after work with Stevie, who saunters straight to the office to catch up with Mr Rose, and all but storms into room seven.

“What the hell, Alexis?” He exclaims, seeing her sat on the bed looking miserable in an oversized top and messy hair, “Oh, are you- were you not at school today?”

“I couldn’t go in, David. Everyone hates me now, especially Mr Brewer! Everyone has taken his side!”

David screws up his face, “can you really blame them? You were a massive dick to him for like, no reason, what even--”

“Ted’s dating Heather.” She mutters miserably, “he’s like, dating her dating her. They’re being all, domestic and romantic with each other. I was just, it caught me at the wrong time, and I know I was out of order but something in me just snapped.”

David sits at the edge of her bed wearily, “I- I’m sorry, Alexis. I know--”

“It’s fine, David. It’s not like it wasn’t my own fault anyway for rejecting him so many times.” She snuffles into her sleeve, “I just, this whole thing is making an already shitty situation even harder and I- I’m not used to having to like, fix problems like this.”

She accepts the light hug that David offers and rests her head on his shoulder softly.

“You’re so much more grown up than me David. I just, I think I suddenly realised that I’m like, living in a motel with my parents. I’m going to high school with people that are like, half my age. I’m literally a student at the school you teach at! There’s like, not even that much of an age difference between us! It’s pathetic!”

“It’s not pathetic,” David mumbles, stroking her hair gently.

“Look, even this, you’re all well-adjusted and not yelling at me even though I was so mean to your friend and made things awkward for you at work.”

“It’s not awkward it’s alright.”

Alexis hesitates, before looking up at him, “really? I’ve heard that it’s awkward.”

David winces as he remembers how he had tried to get Patrick’s attention in the corridor the other day but had been blown off, as he had effectively run off in the opposite direction, pretending not to hear him.

“Mm, it’s a little awkward,” he admits, “and you sucked, but that doesn’t mean that I blame you for everything that happened.”

“I would if I were you.”

“Mm, that’s because you spend too much of your time with high schoolers.” David teases, dodging her light hit and sitting up properly. “You need to come back to school though, apologise to Patrick. Or don’t, you can pretend it didn’t happen, I’m sure he’d let you.”

“I don’t know if I can--”

“You need your high school diploma Alexis. Do this for yourself, don’t let a dumb argument with someone that’s like, the same age as you, stop you from doing this.”

“That was really sweet until you reminded me that me and Patrick are probably like, the same age.”

“Well, gotta, keep you humble haven’t we. Otherwise you might start yelling at strangers to just shag me and get over it, or, or was it screw that you used?”

Alexis rolls her eyes, moving to stand with him. “I really am sorry David, I don’t, I can’t promise not to be a bitch about your love-life again, but I can promise to try and not do it in front of a classroom of high schoolers.”

“Mm, thanks for that sacrifice.” He replies, laughing slightly and patting her shoulders.

*** 

Alexis does end up going back to school, if only for the Friday before the weekend starts. She apologises to Patrick who is extremely forgiving and re-joins the student body with little resistance from anyone.

Despite multiple attempts, David has yet to manage to get Patrick to speak to him.

On Friday morning, in the 5 minute break between home room and first period, he makes the convoluted journey through the school to the maths department, a mug of tea in hand, and hesitates only slightly before knocking lightly on the door.

He enters to see Patrick stood in front of his class talking, leaning against the desk with his arms crossed. His light blue shirt rolled up at the sleeves and with one button popped open.

“Hi,” David says awkwardly, standing in the doorway for just a moment.

“Good morning, Mr Rose.” Patrick replies, however, the soft tone that previously graced his words had gone, and instead he sounded curt, and professional.

“I, um, I didn’t see you in the break room this morning. So, I- I thought that I might, return, the gesture, and um, so I brought you, this.”

Patrick pauses, pushing off the desk and heading towards the door. “That’s very nice of you Mr Rose, thank you.” He said, taking the mug from his hands, “now, if you don’t mind, I’m in the middle of something.”

“Oh,” David replies, looking disappointed, “okay, um, I will just, go then.” He meanders to the door slowly, “um, will I- will I see you at lunch?”

“Uh, yeah probably.” Patrick replies dismissively, placing the mug on his desk and turning back to the class, all watching the interaction with considerable interest.

“Okay, um, I, have a good day, then, I guess.”

He slips out of the door and pauses in the corridor, pressing his hands to his face momentarily before looking up and nodding, heading back towards his classroom.

He arrives and is immediately met by silence from the students who are usually chatting loudly at this point.

“Um, okay, what’re going on here?” He asks, suspiciously, “Why are you all looking at me like that?”

The class just titters, still remaining silent.

“Okay, somebody speak, or I’m gonna set you all a two-thousand-word essay about the 1917 Silent Protest Parade, and I will include it in your final grade.”

The silence grows urgent, and the students begin exchanging eye contact.

David was just about to begin counting down, when Hanna, a popular girl in the front row, who was as loud as she was smart, leans forwards.

“So, why are you late to class, Mr Rose?” She asks, conspiratorially.

“Um, why does it matter, it’s nothing new is it? And I was hardly late, class only started five minutes ago, and this conversation has taken up most of that time.”

“We were just wondering whether or not Mr Brewer appreciated the tea that you made for him.”

“Um, I, uh, what--” David stumbles where he’s leaning against the desk, and crosses, then uncrosses his arm awkwardly. “That is- that is not, the point, I, um, what- what does it matter what I- what I decide to do with--” he flails slightly, eventually coming to a stop and pointing at the class; “you are not going to distract me with your incessant questioning. Now, we- we have some- learning to do. So, we- we, are going to focus up, on, the lesson.”

He claps his hand commandingly and turns to move behind the desk, sitting down and flitting some papers around, trying to calm the blush that was rising on his face.

*** 

Lunch arrives, and David heads to the staff room eagerly hoping to bump into Patrick. Unfortunately, when he arrives, he is in deep conversation with Ronnie, sat several seats away from where David and Stevie (and occasionally, Patrick used to) sit. 

He perches uncomfortably on the corner of a chair, pulling out his phone and shuffling around.

“You alright there, Rose?” Ronnie asks as she glances at him across the room, narrowing her eyes as he pulls at the sleeves of his thick-knitted cream sweater.

“Mhm, uh, yeah, I - um, I just. I just think I forgot, something, in the classroom, back--” He gestures loosely to the side as he stands and moves to the door.

“David, I--” Patrick starts, but David nearly runs into Ray on the way out and instead of responding, he rushes out of the room.

He is about halfway back to his department when he passes Stevie, who puts an arm out to drag him to a stop, “hey, hey Mr Rose.” She says, mindful of the students milling around, “where are you going?”

“I was just gonna, eat lunch in my room.” David replies distractedly.

“You- you don’t have your lunch with you.”

David looks down at his empty hands as if only just noticing the fact that they’re empty, “oh, yeah I- I must have forgotten to grab--”

“David,” Stevie says, looking at David with concern and reaching out a hand as if to steady him, “are you okay?”

“Mhm, yep, yeah. I, um, I just haven’t been sleeping well, since, um, since Freddie disappeared, and um, I think it’s just catching up to me. Along with a couple of other things.” He says, tears welling in his eyes as he leans into Stevie’s hand.

“Okay, what I’m going to do is, I’m going to go and get your lunch from the fridge, whilst you go and sit down, and I’ll bring it to you, how’s that?”

David nods pathetically as Stevie gives him one final concerned look, before letting him go and heading towards the staff room. 

She returns quickly, handing David his tuna sandwich but stealing his chips and sitting cross-legged on top of one of the desks. They eat in silence for a while before Stevie turns to him fully, mouth full, and waves a hand at him almost aggressively. 

“So what other stuff is going on then?” she asks curiously.

“It’s, it’s nothing.” David replies, screwing his face up in regret.

“Doesn’t sound like nothing.” She says, looking thoughtful, “does this have something to do with the tension between you and Patrick?”

“I- I don’t--”

“He asked about you when I got the food you know.”

“What- what did he say?” David asks urgently, looking up interestedly.

“He just asked me to say thank you for the tea this morning, and that he hopes he gets a chance to talk to you before the weekend.”

“I- what, how did this, um, topic of conversation come up?”

“Um, he came up to me and asked me where you were.”

“Oh, and what did you say to that?”

“I said that you had a lot of work to do, and that we were gonna eat in here.” She says slowly, frowning, “why does it matter to you so much?”

“I- I just, I might have had an argument with him, after the whole, Alexis thing, and every time I try to talk to him about it, he brushes me off.”

“I’m sorry, when exactly did he brush you off?”

“Um, the other day in the corridor, and this morning, I took him a tea and he um, was very, dismissive.”

“Hmm, well that’s funny, because he said to me that you’d been acting strange around him all week, and that you keep running away instead of talking to him.”

“That is- that is not true.” David tries, frowning as he considers it, “but, he ignored me in the corridor the other day, when I called out to him, he ducked straight into a different classroom.”

“Maybe he was late for class, or he didn’t hear you.”

David pauses, he had seen him just as class was meant to begin, he had been late to his class, only slightly but that was nothing different for him.

“But I took him that tea, and he asked if I could go, because he was in the middle of something.”

“Maybe he was in the middle of something, like, you know, his class?” she asks sensibly.

“But his voice wasn’t warm like it usually is.” David is fully pouting now, looking pathetically down at the desk.

“Um, okay, we don’t have time to unpack all that.” She says, trying to repress a laugh, “did he take the tea at least?”

“Um, yeah, he took the tea?”

“Maybe, and this might surprise you David, but perhaps, he didn’t want to have a conversation about your little disagreement in front of a room of students.”

“Hmm,” David admits, feeling better by the minutes, “so you don’t think that he is avoiding me because he is still mad at me?”

“No, David. I’m pretty sure that if he really didn’t want to talk to you that much, then he wouldn’t be asking me about you literally every time I see him.”

“- and when you say every time, you mean--”

“Oh my God, David, just talk to him!”

“Fine!” He screeches in response, “I was just wondering if you could clarify what exactly you meant by every time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor David is still not having a very good week :(
> 
> Hope you enjoyed anyway!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David learns something new about Mr Brewer.
> 
> If you want, you can listen to The Weakness in Me by Joan Armatrading whilst reading!

He doesn’t talk to Patrick that evening, either their schedules don’t align, or David thinks it might have been something to do with the stars, because for some reason, every time he tried to be in a place that he thought Patrick might be, he was inexplicably missing.

He has drinks with Stevie that night at his apartment, and she leaves in the early hours of Saturday morning to her shift at the motel, leaving David to wallow in his grief and catch up on some marking he’s been procrastinating.

“You can’t leave that window open for ever you know.” Stevie says, throwing her bag over her shoulder as she turns to leave.

“Yeah, yeah I know I just, I don’t want to trap him out.” David says pathetically, crossing his arms against the cold regardless.

“I’m sure we’ll hear something soon.” She says as she waves at him, closing and locking the door behind herself.

He mopes around for a couple of hours and is curled up on the couch watching a new Netflix documentary when his phone rings with an unrecognised number.

“Um, hello?” he says hesitantly.

“Hi, David?” Ted says cheerfully, “I’m ringing you on the vet phone! Someone has Freddie!”

“Oh my God, you’ve got him?” David exclaims, standing up and pulling some shoes on, leaving his sweatpants and t-shirt on but grabbing a black hooded jacket as he approaches the door.

“Not exactly, apparently the guy that found him doesn’t have a carrier and didn’t want to lose him again, so he called up and the cat matches Freddie’s description.”

“So, you don’t know that it’s Freddie?”

“Oh, no I do, I got him to send me some photos of him, if I send you his number you can arrange to go and get him.”

“Um, okay, that’s fine.” David says, and pauses, as he remembers the manners that he has been trying so hard to instil in the youth of Canada, “Thank you, Ted.”

“No problem buddy, happy to help. I’ll send you his number now.”

The text comes through quickly, and David immediately opens up a new conversation.

**16:34 Hi, Ted gave me your number, he says you have my cat? Can I come and get him?**

_16:35 Hi! Yes of course, I’ll text you my address and you can come as soon as you can?_

_16:37 2B Nightingale Apartments, Schitt’s Creek, Ontario._

This text also comes through quickly, but David hesitates before he leaves. He is preparing Google Maps in order to follow some directions to the destination, but instead finds himself staring at his own address.

Well, his own address only a couple of floors down.

**16:37 I will be there in 2 minutes.**

He takes his time walking down the stairs, not wanting to give the man a fright if he turned up immediately after gaining his address, but also restless to be re-united with his cat.

He knocks on the door, and waits awkwardly for an answer, turning around to look at the stairwell.

“Hi, that was quick, you must be--”

David turns around to face Patrick Brewer, dressed down for the first time he had ever seen, in a pair of grey sweatpants and a tight blue t-shirt, and an equally as shocked impression on his face.

“Oh my God,” David mutters as they look at each other, before he can say anything however, he remembers why he was here, “have you got my cat?” He asks desperately, trying to look past Patrick into the apartment.

“Uh, yeah,” Patrick steps back to offer David access to the apartment, and he is immediately crouched down to grab at Freddie, who runs straight into his arms from by the bed. “Um, I’m sorry, he turned up here on Monday, he must have let himself in the window. I uh- I tried to get a carrier for him to take him to the vet but it’s been a hectic week, um, you know--” he trails off, rubbing the back of his neck and watching as David rubs the side of Freddie’s cheek affectionately whilst also muttering to him under his breath.

“Thank you for looking after him,” David says slowly, “but why did you not put up signs, or let him back out or anything?”

“It’s cold out and I wasn’t sure he was from around here,” Patrick replies, looking apologetic, “and, I did put up signs, there’s one on the noticeboard by the stairs.”

“Oh, uh, I don’t really look at noticeboards.” David says, which earns a laugh.

“I can’t believe - you live in this apartment?”

“Yep, 13B, all the way at the top. He must have, um, climbed out my window and back in to the same one as yours.” He says as he takes in the room, the same lay out but vastly differently decorated.

Patrick continues to watch as David stays crouched on the ground by the cat, who is eagerly jumping up to butt his head against his owner, and purring loudly, “look, David, I need to apologise to you. I was out of order putting you on the spot like that on Tuesday, it wasn’t fair of me and the last thing I wanted to do was make you uncomfortable around me.”

“I wasn’t--” David starts, looking up but still stroking Freddie affectionately.

“No, please, I never meant to lash out at that, and I know how embarrassing it must have been for you to know that the whole school knew everything, I- I just want- can we just start again?”

“Again, again?” David jokes, as he rises up, “I’m- I didn’t mean--”

“Honestly, David, I’m embarrassed, and I- I just, I want to put this all behind us, and forget about it.”

David looks at him thoughtfully, feeling like he’s missing something but unable to put a finger on quite what it was, “um, okay, I mean, if that’s- if that’s what you want. We can, we can start again.”

Patrick offers a sad smile in response and looks down as Freddie moves from David’s legs to his own, walking a circle of eight and rubbing himself affectionately against his legs. David looks surprised for a minute.

“He’s a very affectionate cat,” Patrick says after a moment of watching the progress, “I don’t know why but I’m surprised you would get one that is this friendly.”

“Um, I don’t like what that implies, and also, um, I actually didn’t. He is usually a little bitch to most people except me and Stevie, and my Dad.”

“Huh,” Patrick’s smile grows happier as he looks back up at David who has his hands stuffed awkwardly in his pocket.

“Also, I didn’t really um, get him? I guess? It was a weird process and it just kind of ended up happening that way?”

“Ah, right,” Patrick zones off for a moment before snapping back to life, “hey, so, um, now that you’re here, maybe I could um, I could make you dinner? As an apology for kidnapping your cat for the week, and also as an apology, for, um,” he coughs uncomfortably, “you know.”

David looks surprised, but grins at him, “You- you don’t have to do that.”

“No, I- I want to. You’d actually be doing me a favour, I’m not very good at cooking for one and I’m gonna stop fitting into my trousers before long so--” he trails off, looking hopeful.

David shakes his head a little, looking upwards, before catching Patrick’s eye again, “okay, I- um, then I would like that, very much.”

“Great, I’ll, um, I will get started then. Make yourself at home, God knows your cat already has,” he says, gesturing over to where Freddie is laid out in a patch of sun that hits the bed.

“Oh, I can get him to- um, I can get him to move.” David offers, cringing.

“No, no, leave him where he is, he’s been taking up most of the bed all week, it’s probably more his, than mine at this point.”

David flushes at this, although he doesn’t know why, and he takes in the domestic scene playing out in front of him. Patrick is stood by the fridge in the kitchenette, his cupboards still the shocking yellow shade that his upstairs had previously been, whilst his cat made itself effortlessly comfortably in the apartment. He heads for the small round table and takes a seat facing Patrick.

“Do you- do you want any help?” He offers nervously.

“Nope, no, you’re alright you can just, um, watch.” At this, Patrick stutters and goes slightly red, “not that you would, um, be watching me, um cook, I’m just going to--” He turns fully so his back is to David and focuses on chopping something.

David chuckles as he turns his phone around in his hands.

“Um, you can put some music on if you want?” Patrick suggests after a couple of minutes, gesturing towards a turntable placed by the exposed brick fireplace.

David jumps up eagerly and heads over, flicking through Patrick’s collection of records judgementally.

Shania Twain, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston. Hmm, maybe not as straight as he had previously thought, David wonders. Billy Joel, actually scratch that, maybe still straight.

He pulls out a Joan Armatrading record and places it carefully on, and the sounds of her voice fill the quiet apartment.

“Mm, I love this one,” Patrick says from the kitchen. He has a white, ratty tea towel thrown over his right shoulder now, and has begun frying the vegetables in a pan. He rocks side to side to the music as he stirs in the pan.

David grins at him affectionately as he continues flipping through the albums. “You have some really good music here; Fleetwood Mac? George Michael? Very um- very unexpected.”

“Why thank you, I’m gonna take that as a compliment, I like to keep you guessing.” Patrick replies, smiling back at him with equal fondness.

David moves from the record player to take in the rest of the room. To the untrained eye, there are very few real personal touches. The art is black and white and generic, a print of a New York street, a surprisingly soft red throw that David assumes is from some generic store like target, thrown haphazardly along the back of the grey couch. He pokes around interestedly, and moves back to the kitchen area, where Patrick is now singing along softly under his breath, as if he isn’t even aware that he’s doing it.

“ _but still you gained my attention. Why do you come here? When you know I’ve got trouble enough, why do you come here--_ ” He pulls two flattened bowls out of a cupboard above his head and begins to serve from the pan of noodles and vegetables that he has prepared.

He carries them over to the table, still humming under his breath, and places one carefully down in front of where David is sat, who looks at it eagerly.

“Thank you for this.” He says softly, looking up at where Patrick is still standing through his eye lashes.

“I- I really should be thanking you.” Patrick replies almost awkwardly as he sits opposite, feet brushing for just a moment under the small table. “I- I’m glad we got to talk, you know, about, stuff.”

David frowns in confusion again, but lets it go, shaking his head dismissively, “me too,” he says as he twirls his fork through some noodles and raises it to his mouth. He moans through the mouthful and jumps when Patricks fork clatters down onto his bowl.

“Uh, sorry, I- um- I- uh, just, must have, slipped.” Patrick stutters out, face beetroot red.

“This is really good,” David says, sensing some sort of awkwardness that he doesn’t fully understand, and effectively changing the subject.

“Thank you, I- uh, it’s nothing special, just a cheap meal, you know--”

“I appreciate it anyway, you didn’t have to do this you know, I’m not, you don’t owe me anything.”

“I know, I didn’t do it because of that.”

They eat in silence for a few minutes before Freddie, smelling food, arrives in the kitchen and tries to jump up on the table.

“You’ve only been looking after him for five days and you’ve already instilled him with bad manners!” David jokes as he picks him up and deposits him back on the floor.

“He must have learned it from somewhere, because he did that as soon as he arrived.” Patrick replies easily, shifting forward in his seat as Freddie jumps up onto his chair behind him and settles there, pawing at Patrick’s back affectionately.

“He seems to have taken a liking to you quickly.”

“Hah, yes, well, he definitely didn’t learn that from you.”

“Okay,” David laughs and rolls his eyes, “we’re here now, though, aren’t we?”

“Hmm, you succumbed to my charm in the end I guess.”

“Mm, or you wore me down with your incessant attempts at friendship and constant nice gestures.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing, David.” Patrick says, cheerily, finishing his last bite of food and clearing away the bowls, David’s already having been long finished. “Um, I bought him some food- I wasn’t sure what you usually fed him, but he seems to be okay with this?” He says pulling out a can of food from a cupboard and holding it up for David to see.

“Yeah, you um, you made the right choice there.” He says smiling, “you really are full of surprises aren’t you Mr Brewer.”

“Always aim to impress, Mr Rose.”

He empties the food into a bowl and places it on the floor in the same place David does, in his identical apartment several floors up. David watches in curious attention as his cat digs in and Patrick cleans up next to him.

He’s suddenly hit with a surprise longing not to leave this apartment. To stay in the warmth of Patrick’s flat, with its cheap and tacky decorations, and its butter-voiced inhabitant. To wrap himself in the cheap polyester throw and for them to settle down together for the night.

He shakes the feeling off as he moves to stand next to Patrick at the sink, taking the dishes off his hands as he stacks them on the dryer, and pulling the towel off his shoulder to begin helping.

Patrick says nothing, but just looks up at him thankfully, and they move together in tandem, easy in a way that David has never experienced before.

They live in this domestic scene for a while longer, before David sighs regretfully and looks at where Freddie has curled up on one of the seats at the table.

“I should probably take him home,” he says slowly, “I- um, thank you again for looking after him so well.”

“It was my pleasure, he’s a lovely cat.” Patrick says smiling as he leads them to the door, and watching David scoop his cat effortlessly into his arms and move towards him.

“Yeah, well, um, I- thank you, for everything you did today, and for looking after him, and um, for defending my honour I guess?” He jokes at the end, hoping to earn a smile from Patrick but instead watching a blush rise on his colleague’s face.

“Yeah, well, um, I really didn’t- it was nothing.” He says shyly, looking at the floor for a moment as if thinking really hard, before moving to open the door. “I’ll uh, I’ll see you on Monday I guess?”

“Sure, I will see you on Monday.” David replies, before making the short journey up several flights of stairs to his own apartment.

He deposits Freddie easily on the floor, moving quickly to make sure the window is locked shut, and settles onto the couch.

Despite the return of his cat, he finds himself unable to fully relax, feeling a new pent up energy growing in him ever since he returned from Patrick’s.

The feeling prevails for the rest of the weekend, and he spends the Sunday morning pacing his floor before giving up and heading out to the motel to meet his family, looking longingly at Patrick’s apartment door as he passes it.

He arrives at the motel and immediately heads to the office to see Stevie.

“Wait, you’re telling me that Freddie was just, completely fine with Patrick? Like no scratching or hiding under the bed or anything?” Stevie asks, disbelievingly from where she is perched behind the desk.

“Yes! He was sprawled out across the bed for most of the time that I was there! I assume that he must have been able to smell me on Patrick’s clothes or something because I have never seen him be that affectionate with anyone other than me.”

“Huh, I’m sorry, he smelt you on the clothes of the man that you literally haven’t spoken to or spent any time around all week?”

“It’s the only explanation that makes sense.” David says resolutely.

“Hm, or, your cat worked something out that you still haven’t managed to understand?” Stevie replies, smiling eagerly.

“And what would that be?”

She scoffs, “you know, for someone so smart you really can be dense sometimes, David Rose.”

He rolls his eyes in response and leans his head back against the back of the couch.

In the end, he only spends just over an hour at the motel before saying his goodbyes to Stevie and leaving the office.

“Remember I can’t give you any lifts to work next week.” She says as he heads to the door.

“Um, excuse me what? Since when?”

“Er, since you convinced me to sign up for that godawful Geography trip. Instead of giving you lifts I will be in a cabin, in the woods, looking at trees and taking in the wildlife.”

“Oh my God, that’s next week?” David says, suddenly remembering that conversation, “the Wood Cabin trip that Jake has arranged for the Sophomore’s?” He coos, lips pursing in excitement as Stevie just rolls her eyes.

“So, you will have to use your own transport, don’t be late to school, I don’t want to come back and find out that you’ve been fired.”

“Ugh, as if they would ever fire me,” David laughs dismissively, “I hope you have fun, I would have thought a little pony like you would have been comfortable riding around in the woods.”

“Mhm, get out of my office.” Stevie says, looking down at her check-in book resolutely.

“Bye,” David replies, drawing out the end and letting the door slam shut behind him as he heads back to the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course Freddie is obsessed with Patrick. This was 100% one of my favourite chapters to write of anything, ever. There are still some things going unsaid though!
> 
> The album David puts on is called Walk Under Ladders by Joan Armatrading, and the song is The Weakness in Me. It's such a good album and song so I highly suggest it!
> 
> Let me know what you thought!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David deals with the first day in a week without Stevie, and questions his and Patrick's relationship.

David wakes up on Wednesday morning in a bad mood. He can’t decipher exactly why; he had slept well and was ahead on his work. He suspected it maybe had something to do with Stevie’s prolonged absence, but he had been filling his time at work with Patrick so there was no real reason for it.

He mopes around that morning, moodily climbing into his old, second or third hand car, and driving the short distance to the high school, parking in Stevie’s usual place and climbing out.

He enters the break room to find it busy with teachers hectically buzzing around and increasing his frustration further. Some of the tensions eases when he catches eyes with Patrick, who holds up a cup of coffee and pats the seat next to him expectantly.

“Good morning, Mr Rose.” He says pleasantly.

“You know, you don’t have to call me that when we’re not in front of students.” David replies, sitting down and accepting the drink, “thank you.”

“Hmm, what would you prefer I call you when we’re not in front of students then?” Patrick replies lowering his voice and leaning in.

This type of teasing had only increased in the couple of days they had been friends again. It confused and excited David every time, forcing him to constantly remind himself that Patrick was just being friendly, and then being hit with a wave of desire in moments such as this. 

David blushes, and takes a sip from his coffee, humming in appreciation as he looks around the room. “Is it always this mad this early in the morning?”

“You mean when people are on time to work? No, it’s not actually, I overheard something Roland’s niece arriving? Do you know--”

“Oh God,” David says, face blanching, “that’s today? I knew I was in a bad mood for a reason.”

“You’re in a bad mood?” Patrick asks, laughing, “I thought this was just normal David Rose in the morning attitude. I hope you’re not suddenly going to lash out at me or something?”

David smiles in response but rolls his eyes for effect, “not a bad mood with you, obviously.” 

“So, what is it about Roland’s niece that’s got the usual chipper David Rose in such a funk?” Patrick asks in an exaggerated tone of voice, causing David to roll his eyes but smile nonetheless.

“Ugh, it’s the worst, he lets her come in every once-in-a-while to teach a seminar. It’s always on something different, and it’s always awful. Plus, she is the most--”

They are interrupted by a screech from across the room, “Oh my God! Dave!”

A blonde haired woman in a red blouse which showed just a little too much cleavage and a large, long-lined, fluffy coat practically throws herself in David’s lap, squeezing her way down between the pair.

“It has been too long,” she says, walking her fingers up David’s chest as she purrs at him.

“Mhm, hi Vanessa, you look, um, nice.” He stutters, not even trying to hide his disgust as he leans away from her touch and catches eyes with Patrick, who’s face has lit up in uncontrollable glee.

“And who is this sexy thing?” She asks, turning to Patrick and pulling lightly on his tie.

Patrick’s smile drops to one of almost fear, “um, I’m, I- the maths teacher.” He stutters as he takes a hold of her arm and moves it away from him.

“Mm, do you like my jacket,” she asks, ignoring his discomfort completely, “it’s Himalayan cat hair, it probably cost more than your car.”

“Oh, I should probably go then, because I’m, um, I’m allergic.” Patrick continues to stutter as he stands up and turns to make his leave, “um, David, did you want to--?”

“Oh yes,” David exclaims, standing up and taking Patrick’s hand, which he had reached out to help him step over Vanessa’s legs, “we have a- um, a thing we need to--”

They scramble out of the room, all loose coats and bags, and almost collapse against each other in the corridor laughing.

David finds himself almost pinned to the wall by Patrick’s weight as they laugh together almost hysterically, earning a couple of strange looks from the staff walking past.

Once they’ve calmed down, they lean against the wall next to each other, shoulders brushing just slightly as they slow their breathing and wipe rogue tears away from their eyes.

“Himalayan - cat hair.” Patrick wheezes, almost starting another round of laughter but running his hands through his hair instead and focusing on controlling his breathing.

David chuckles again, “Freddie is going to be disappointed that he’s never going to be able to see you again,” he says teasingly, “now that I know that you’re allergic I’m going to have to keep you apart, I can’t have you dying because of me.”

“Aww, you care about me that much?” Patrick asks, pushing himself off the wall but staying in David’s space, and pouting at him cheekily.

“Don’t push your luck.” David replies, poking one of Patrick’s dimples and receiving a fully-fledged smile in return.

The bell rings, and they look at each other. David thinks he sees some disappointment flicker in Patrick’s eyes but ignores it in favour for wincing, “Well, that’s our cue.” He says, brushing down his clothes.

“I’ll see you at lunch?” 

“Oh, absolutely not!” David exclaims, “now that she--” he gestures back to the staff room door, “is here, I won’t be able to get her claws off me, I will be eating my lunch in my classroom, like a normal, sane person.”

Patrick snorts in response and shakes his head as he tucks his hands into his pockets.

“Um, you could, er, join me though? If you want?” David asks suddenly.

“Really?” Patrick looks pleased, and shuffles his foot slightly, “er, yeah, sure that’d be great. I’ll um, I’ll come to your room then.”

“See you then.”

They stand there facing each other for another moment, before nodding, and turning on their heels to head to their respective classrooms.

*** 

The bell for lunch rings eternities later. David has had a stressful morning, dealing with emotional break downs and petty teenage arguments all morning, and is ready to collapse into bed by midday.

As the class files out, Hanna stops by his desk, looking hesitant.

“Um, Mr Rose, can I ask you a question?” she asks, fidgeting.

“Sure, what’s up?” He replies, from where he is wiping the white-board clean, placing the eraser down and turning to give her his full attention.

“Um, I was just wondering, um, I--” she takes a deep breath, seeming to try and calm herself, “I was just wondering if in the curriculum this year, we would be studying anything like, the, um, the gay rights movement, maybe?”

David raises an eyebrow, “I’m afraid it’s not in the curriculum, it’s definitely crucial to think about in terms of understanding the period, but the school hasn’t included it.” He hesitates, taking in her demeaner and deciding to pursue it, “is this- of special interest to you?”

She nods, looking down at her feet and blushing, “I was just, um, wondering.”

“Hmm, well, if you want to do some extra reading on it then I have some good books you can borrow?”

She nods eagerly, and he pulls the bottom drawer of his desk open, ruffling around for a moment before pulling out a Marsha P. Johnson biography, “how about, you take this, and you read it, and if you have any questions about anything, or want to know more, then, you can come and ask me whenever you want, does that sounds good?”

She takes the book from it, looking at it curiously and smiling slightly, “that’s great Mr Rose, thank you so much,” she says, stuffing it into her backpack and heading to the door.

“You still have to do your essay though,” David adds, faux-sternly.

She laughs, “yeah, yeah- oh, sorry Mr Brewer.” She says as she bumps into where he was standing just outside the door. She looks between the two of them for a moment, smiling, before disappearing down the corridor.

Patrick closes the door behind him as he comes in, he pulls a chair from behind one of the student tables and places it by the desk, only an arms distance away from the desk chair, which David sits down in tentatively.

“Hey, I picked up your lunch from the break room, figured it might be dangerous to send you in there alone.”

David smiles thankfully and takes the salad box, “I think we should be more concerned about you,” he jokes as he scoops a spoonful of leftover pasta into his mouth clumsily, “I’m concerned that if you spend too much time around that coat you might go up in a rash, and ruin your lovely face.” He pouts teasingly.

“Okay, first of all, it was a high-pressure situation, and I wanted to get out of there, and it was the first thing that came to my head.” He replies, pointing his fork at David teasingly, “second of all, I’m touched that you think my face is lovely.”

David stuffs some more pasta into his mouth in lieu of a response and avoids Patrick’s eyes.

It’s moments like these that cause him to doubt all of his intuition that Patrick isn’t into him. Where most people would let the conversation drop, and move on awkwardly, Patrick seems to almost lean into them, and drag them out with teasing words and meaningful looks that David can never decipher. 

“Hey,” Patrick says, pulling him out of his thoughts, “you have a little--”

He leans across the corner of the table with a napkin in hand and wipes the corner of David’s mouth where some red sauce had caught. He freezes with his hand there, and then slowly, tentatively, he rubs his thumb, without the barrier of the napkin, against the corner of David’s lips.

His breath catches momentarily and his eyelashes flutter as David freezes in place, eyes caught in Patrick’s.

They seem to become aware of the situation in the same moment, and Patrick coughs awkwardly as he looks away, turning back to take a large bite of his sandwich.

David is rooting around in his head for a conversation starter when Patrick turns to him, looking serious.

“You know, you’re really good with these students.” He says suddenly.

“Oh - I, um--”

“Really David, I uh, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your conversation with Hanna, but I- these kids really trust you, like explicitly, enough to come and talk to you about personal things like that. I- I can only hope that after being here a little longer they feel even half as comfortable around me as they do around you.”

David flushes at the praise, and stabs half-heartedly at his food, “you don’t - you don’t have to say that.” He says, smiling anyway and looking at Patrick bashfully.

“I- it’s true. I just felt like it was important that you um, know, that I see you. That I see what you do for these students.”

“That is a really, lovely thing to say.” 

Patrick grins at him for another moment, almost looking surprised by his mere existence in the room with him, and they turn back to their food. 

*** 

At the end of the school day, David is feeling exhausted again, his brief rejuvenation from a lunch spent with Patrick quickly dissipating as he is met with an onslaught of new drama and fresh marking to complete.

The last straw hits his back when he takes a seat in his car, and turns the key, and the engine sputters and whines instead of rumbling to life.

He tries again, glaring at the dashboard as if that will make any difference, and it repeats the same action.

The third time he tries, it makes no sound at all.

“Fuck!” he exclaims, “fuck, fuck, fuck!” he hits the steering wheel in emphasis and then rests his head on it in frustration.

He raises his head slightly when there is a light knock on the window, and turns his head to glare at Patrick, who is stood there looking amused, in his white shirt and pink patterned tie combo.

Patrick looks at him questioningly, and David groans, winding down the manual window bit by bit, “yes, can I help you?” He asks curtly.

“Looks like I should be the one helping you,” Patrick responds.

David pouts silently up at him, looking pathetic as he sits with his hands still clasped to the wheel.

“Come on, David, I’ll give you a lift home.”

There is minimal whining as David clambers out of the car and deposits a blue plastic box of marking, he had to take home into Patricks arms, before leaning into the back seat to grab his coat and satchel.

They make their way to Patrick’s car, and David slides into the passenger seat, relishing in the scent of Patrick, and the working heater.

“Thank you for this.” He mumbles as they exit the carpark.

“It’s my pleasure- um, I was gonna suggest it anyway, when I found out we live in the same building, but I uh, I didn’t know how to ask.”

David smiles shyly out of the window as he takes this in, “well that is a lovely gesture, but um, Stevie usually drives me to work.”

“Huh,” Patrick says, smiling now and looking teasing even as he focuses on the road, “even though she lives in the opposite direction?”

“How do you know that?”

“She told me the other week,” Patrick says eyes laughing, “I thought maybe you didn’t drive because you couldn’t or because you, um, lived together or something.”

“Lived together, like as in--” David makes a gesture with his hands and Patrick nods awkwardly, “no, no, no, we’re not, we’ve never, only, briefly, barely, no I’m very much not--”

“David- David,” Patrick says, fully laughing now, “don’t worry, Stevie cleared it up almost as adamantly as you just did.”

“Good, good,” David breathes, “I just wanted to make sure you know--”

“I do, it’s all good.” He re-assures as they pull up to the apartment.

They hesitate before getting out of the car, both looking like they want to say something. 

“Um, thank you again for this.” David says, hitting his knees slightly with his hands and turning to face Patrick, “I, um, I should probably go and call a tow truck or something to go and get my car.”

“Hm, yeah, of course.”

They clamber out, and head to the building together, pausing at the threshold of Patrick’s apartment.

“Um, I can give you a lift in in the morning.” Patrick says, as he slips the key in the lock, balancing his own box of marking on one hip.

“Could you? That would be so great, thank you.” David responds.

“It does mean that you’ll have to be on time though unfortunately, none of this turning up five minutes before class like Stevie allows, I like to get there at least half an hour before.”

David gives a silent groan expression but bobs his head up and down as he heads to the stairs. 

“Goodnight, David.”

“Goodnight Patrick.” David replies, turning one more time to smile at him before continuing up to his apartment.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David finds out something about Patrick that ruins his day.

David sleeps through his alarm only slightly the next morning, and has to rush through his morning routine haphazardly, skipping coffee and breakfast in favour of showering and changing, swinging out of the apartment in the nick of time.

He is just getting to the foot of the stairs when he hears voices in the corridor and pauses, peeking his head around the corner slightly to see a petite, red-headed woman walking out of Patrick’s apartment.

Patrick then appears, they hug quickly, and then step apart, Patrick muttering something into her ear as they separate which she smiles to and walks away.

David watches as Patrick turns the lock on his door, looking at his watch and then pulling out his phone, frowning.

He decides that is the time to make his presence known, and clatters down the final few steps before turning the corner and almost bumping into the other man who it seems had decided to head up the stairs looking for him.

“Hi,” Patrick says breathlessly, smiling at David widely and far too brightly for this time of morning.

He smiles in response, nodding towards the door and muttering a whispered, “shall we,” as they head out the door.

It is too early for this sort of disappointment, David decides. He knew that at some point his illusion would be shattered, but this was not the day or the time for it to happen. He immediately feels choked up on his disappointment and tries to control his anger towards Patrick. Which he has no right to be because Patrick hadn’t even done anything wrong.

They have a silent car ride to the school, arriving the demanded twenty minutes before class and moving towards the front door together.

“Um, I need to go straight to my classroom this morning.” David mutters miserably.

“Oh, um, do you not want- can I get you a coffee David?”

“Why? That’s not your job.”

Patrick frowns, looking put off for a minute before smirking slightly, “did you not have one yet?”

David just rolls his eyes as he flounces down the corridor towards his room, “do as you wish I guess.” He says over his shoulder, whilst Patrick just stands there watching him leave.

“Well, that went well.” He hears Patrick mutter as he makes the walk to the staff room.

This menial comment almost boils David’s blood, and he finds himself clenching his fists, arriving in his empty classroom and dumping his bag on the floor under his desk, before collapsing into his desk chair.

He prepares himself for his first lesson and, screw Patrick, because it is way easier to do with the extra time.

His mood hasn’t improved since this morning, and when his first class arrives, he can already feel a stress headache coming on.

All thoughts of running away from the school, stealing Roland’s truck (again), and hitting the open road leave his head as Connor enters, his mug of tea in one hand, and places it on his desk.

“I think the more traditional method is an apple,” David says, eyeing the tea cautiously, “this better not be your way of telling me you haven’t done the homework because I am really not in the mood--”

“I walked past Mr Brewer in the corridor, he gave me this, and also these.” Connor says dismissively, pulling out a folded-up piece of paper and breakfast bar from his pocket. “I didn’t read it don’t worry, didn’t want to be scarred this early in the morning.”

“Not funny,” David says, looking up sternly, but taking the items.

Connor shrugs, still smiling, and heads to take his seat.

David eyes the note with caution where it sits still folded in front of him. He opens the biscuit, taking a large bite before turning to the class and beginning the class.

***

It isn’t until the lunch bell rings that he opens the note, in a much better mood than he had been in the morning. It’s a scrap of white lined paper, clearly ripped from a notebook, and the writing is done in a messy blue biro.

_David,_

It reads.

_I was going to bring this for you myself so that you could thank me properly, but I am running late to my class._

_I missed you in the break room this morning._

_I’m sorry I won’t get to see you at lunch because I have been volunteered to help out with the school performance that has been going on whilst Stevie is away._

_I’ll come pick you up after school to drive you home._

_Have a good day ;)_

David half scowls, half smiles at the note, feeling his heart flutter as he reads through it. This flutter immediately turns into a sour feeling as he remembers the mystery girl from this morning.

Patrick is clearly straight. He reminds himself. Even if Patrick is attracted to men, David would never in a million years be his type. He’s too much, he fills a room, and he walks through life basically asking for attention.

Suddenly, David feels the urge to cry, which is just so pathetic in the middle of the school day, so he heads to the bathroom and splashes his face carefully with water. On his way back from the bathroom he runs almost head-first into Moira Rose, perched on a ridiculous pair of heels and standing in the corridor looking lost.

“Ah, my prodigal son!” She exclaims as he approaches her.

“Hi mom,” he says, accepting a cheek kiss and leading her to his classroom, “what are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

“Yes dear, I have been brought in by Jocelyn to support in directing the school enactment of my own illustrious legacy, Cabaret!”

“Oh, isn’t that, a bit risqué for high schoolers?” David asks as his mother seats herself in his desk chair and he moves around it to sit on the table.

“They’re not children, David, you should know this by now. Besides, how do we as performers decide what is suitable and not suitable for consumption by the public? It is all a part of the bewitching experience of the theatre.”

David hums in a non-committal way, and frowns, “so what are you doing here?” He asks suddenly.

“Is it ever the wrong time for a mother to visit her son?” Moira asks.

David smirks, “who were you really looking for?” he asks.

“Well, I was sent to try and find the maths department, apparently there is a teacher called Mr Brewing that is joining our artistic circle and he is running late--”

David laughs, “you were quite close with that one, I’m impressed.”

They are interrupted by a knock on the door. Patrick sticks his head round it and looks flustered.

“Hey David, I can’t stay I just thought you would want--” he trails off as he takes in the room, “oh, um, hi, you must be Mrs Rose?”

“My fame precedes me I gather.” She says rising, “and who, say, are you?”

“Uh, I’m Patrick,” he says politely, “um, Mr Brewer.”

“Ah!”

Moira looks between David and Patrick like a wild cat hunting her prey.

Patrick shuffles uncomfortably under her gaze, but turns back to David regardless, “um, I wasn’t sure if you had any lunch with you, so I thought I’d bring you this, I made extra.” He says holding out a tupper-ware container full of pasta.

David smiles softly, accepting the food and placing it on the desk, “thank you, you didn’t have to do that.”

Patrick just shakes his head in response, twitching slightly, as Moira sizes him up.

“You are very kind, looking after my David like this,” Moira says, as she rounds the desk.

“Oh, well, I’m not exactly--”

“Especially with things such as this, you’ll find out soon enough how volatile David’s mood gets when he hasn’t eaten.”

“Ooh I know.” Patrick replies, seeming to find his footing and smirking back at David, who looks flustered.

“Hmm, Alexis was right, he’s a button.” She says as she passes David and reaches to take Patrick’s arm, leading him back towards the door, “now, I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard this story before young Pat--”

Her voice trails off as they turn the corner at the end of the corridor, and David huffs, turning back to his lunch.

***

Patrick turns up at David’s classroom that afternoon and pokes his head through the door.

“Have you eaten recently?” he asks teasingly as he pretends to hesitate before entering.

“Oh, very funny,” David snipes back, “thank you for lunch though. It was really delicious.

“You’re welcome. I’ll have to make it for you fresh at some point?”

“Oh, uh, sure.” David replies smiling slightly and packing his work messily into his bag, before waving a hand to regain Patrick’s attention, who had zoned out with a pleased look on his face.

“Oh, sorry, You ready to go?”

“Mhm, thank you.”

“My pleasure, David.”

They are driving towards the apartment blocks when Patrick breaks the silence.

“So, a button, huh?” He asks, looking almost hesitant in his teasing.

“Alexis’ words, not mine.” David exclaims in response.

“Huh.” There’s silence for another moment before Patrick glances a look at him out of the corner of his eye, “so how would you describe me then?”

David laughs slightly, blushing, but rolls his eyes as he replies, “Right now? I’d describe you as fishing for compliments.” He says with a laugh.

They pull up and Patrick places the car in park, he rubs his knees nervously as they hesitate again, “do you maybe want to come round, I have some marking to do tonight and it would be nice to have some, uh, company. I could even make you some of that pasta you had for lunch.”

David feels his hopes rise again, before violently trampling them down, shaking his head as he turns to look at Patrick sadly.

“I, uh, I probably shouldn’t. Um, I have a lot to do, and I don’t want to, er, get in the way of your guest.”

“My guest? - Wait, David--”

David clambers out of the car clumsily, and brushes Patrick off as they walk towards the building, Patrick trailing behind slightly.

“Thank you for the lift, um, my car should be back from the Bob's by tomorrow morning, so you don’t need to wait for me tomorrow.”

“-- David, we could still always, like, ride-share, or something I don’t mind--”

“I’ve got to go,” David says as they arrive at the foot of the stairs, “see you later.”

“O-okay, um, bye, um, David.” Patrick says sadly, standing outside of his front door for a moment before unlocking it and entering.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Friday at Schitt's Creek High School, and David discovers that Patrick has a competitive edge that he hadn't seen coming.

_David enters his empty classroom, opening the door to find Patrick already there, as he has a tendency to do nowadays, stood behind his desk._

_“What are you doing here?” David asks, clumsily dropping the things he had been carrying as Patrick stalks towards him, pushing him against the wall next to the closed door._

_“I couldn’t wait to see you,” Patrick says in a tone that makes him seem embarrassed, as he cups a hand round the back of David’s neck, “I’m so glad you accepted my invitation to dinner last night, and I wanted to see you again, and maybe offer a repeat performance.” He says, a glimmer of humour in his eyes._

_Suddenly Patrick is kissing him, his lips slotting easily against his with just a hint of tongue._

_David melts easily into it, as the kiss draws out small hitches and moans. He runs his hands through Patrick’s hair, which has been slowly but surely curling at the edges over the last couple of months._

_“I- hm, I didn’t think you liked me like this.” David manages to gasp out as Patrick moves his attention to his neck, peppering small kisses and nips along the sensitive skin under David’s jaw._

_“Mm, how about I show you how much I like you?” Patrick offers, smiling at him before slipping down onto the floor on his knees, and reaching to fumble with David’s jeans._

_“Mhm, Patrick I, yes--”_

David’s alarm wakes him with a start.

“Fuck” he mutters, pushing his face into the pillow and breathing deeply as his room comes into focus, “ugh, fuck.”

He clambers out of the bed, stripping the sheets and throwing them into a laundry bag to be done that evening, before heading for the shower.

He gets himself off quickly, trying to focus on anything but the brown eyes and rough hands that had covered him in his dream, but finds himself refocusing back on Patrick’s weight against him in the corridor just a few days before.

“Uh- Pat _rick_.” He moans as he comes, immediately blushing red with shame as he realises what he’s done, and rushes to finish his shower.

He attempts to complete his morning skin routine, distractedly, and downs a cup of coffee as he gets changed into a white sweater with black stars scattered across it and some tight black jeans with cuts on the knees.

He feeds Freddie, and pets his head affectionately, and is just stepping out into the corridor when he bumps fully into Patrick, dropping his box of marking and scattering papers everywhere.

“Oh my God, David, I’m so sorry.” Patrick exclaims as they crouch down together to pick them up, hands meeting several times and causing them both to go red in the face. “I just- I thought I could come and convince you to maybe, I don’t know, accept the lift to work and I- uh I was just about to knock but I--”

“Patrick, Patrick it’s fine.” David says, unable to hold back a laugh as he watches the panicked expression on his face. “No harm done, and uh, I mean, since we’re both here already I guess a lift, would be great, thank you.”

Patrick looks up and smiles as if surprised, but helps David scoop up the remainder of the work and they head to the car together, Patrick almost bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement.

“So, um, what’s all this?” David asks as they arrive at the car, and Patrick slings a large overnight bag into the trunk, “are you, um, are you going somewhere nice?”

His anxiety spikes as he immediately makes the assumption that Patrick will be spending the night with his lady friend and begins wringing his hands in discomfort as he regrets accepting the offer.

“Huh? Oh, there’s a baseball game tonight, that just has my kit in it.” Patrick says as they climb into the car.

“You, er, and you’re playing the baseball?”

“Yeah did I never tell you?” Patrick asks, looking amused, “Ronnie and I are the captains of the teams, we’ve been preparing for this for a while, mainly after school hours and prepping in the staff room.”

“But, uh, why do you have all that stuff for it?”

“Well David, it’s generally a good example for the captain of the team to at least wear the uniform, and we have to be prepared to step in, just in case.”

David has a far off look on his face and pauses for a moment.

“So, um, what time is the baseball?” David asks, curiously.

“It’s just after school, it’ll be finished by about six. You can come and watch if you’d like, um, I’d like it if you were there.”

David smirks and blushes slightly, looking away and out of the window for a moment before replying.

“Sure, I’ll come, but mainly because I want to see you face Ronnie’s competitiveness first-hand; there’s a reason nobody else has accepted her attempts to build a team.” David says nonchalantly.

“Great, and I can give you a lift home after.”

“Okay,” David mutters, still smiling.

They walk together to the staff room, chatting idly about the school day and their lesson plans, and take their usual seats in the relatively busy room.

After a couple of moments, Ronnie approaches, looking eager, and stands in front of the pair.

“Alright, Brewer? I hope your team are bringing their A-game today. We want to at least deserve it when we beat you.”

“Awfully confident of you for someone who had to beg the students to join their team Ronnie, it’s almost like you’ve scared them all off or something.” Patrick bats easily back.

She laughs, grabs her drink out of the fridge, and is gone.

“Hmm, I didn’t know you had such a competitive edge.” David says thoughtfully as he watches Patrick stand and move towards the kitchen area to make tea.

“Hah, a little, the competition is half of the fun for games like these though, and there are no other schools nearby to get competitive against, so we had to try and create it for ourselves.”

“I’m looking forward to watching this game more and more by the minute.”

“Aww, David, so sweet.” Patrick responds sarcastically, coming back over with two mugs in his hands, and passing one to David, who looks surprised but pleased.

Patrick sits down closer than perhaps necessary, but David chalks it up to an accident, and silently enjoys the way Patrick’s thigh is pressing against him all the way up, causing tingles to approach up David’s spine.

“So, I’m surprised,” Patrick says, taking a sip of his tea and turning his body slightly to face David better, “are you not a sporty person? I would have thought you would jump at the chance to get the students together for some team building exercises.”

“Mm, funny,” David drawls, eyes following Patricks tongue which pokes out to wet his lips slightly, before looking up to catch his eye, and realising he has been caught. “Um, uh, I prefer to encourage team-building in other, less dangerous ways. Believe it or not I consider a successful day at work as ending without me being drenched in sweat.”

“I don’t know, David, I’d consider that a pretty successful day.” Patrick counters, still pressing their legs together and maintaining eye contact.

David swallows, feeling his pulse quicken as he takes in Patrick’s dark gaze. His grip on his coffee lessens and it almost slips through his hands, but before disaster can strike, Patrick reaches his own hands out and cups them around David’s, tightening his grip on his drink and holding it steady.

“Careful,” he whispers, not letting go of David’s hands for a moment too long, “we wouldn’t want you to have to strip off your sweater again.”

David blushes as the memory of strawberry milkshake flashes into his head.

“I don’t know, you didn’t seem to complain about it.” He retorts, unsure of where that comment had come from but decides to stick by it when he sees how Patrick’s eyes widen almost as much as his smile.

“Hmm,” Patrick replies, “you know, I don’t think I did.”

They are interrupted by the bell, as usual, and separate slowly, coming back to become aware of the room of teachers all extremely interested in their interaction.

“We should go to class.” Patrick is still whispering, and only removes his hands from David’s at the last possible moment before standing up and brushing himself down, “I’ll uh, I’ll see you later, David.”

Patrick winks as he throws his sports bag and heads out of the room, looking back at where David is still sat, clinging on to the chair with white knuckles.

“David, are you going to class?” Jocelyn asks from where she is cleaning her mug.

“Oh, um, yeah, I was just, on my way.” David trails off, still looking lost.

***

As the bell for the last class rings, David rushes to pack up his things and heads straight to the baseball field. As he exits the back of the school, he catches sight of the coach parked by the side of the road.

He wanders slowly over to it, watching as Stevie jumps off it, telling something to a group of students as they dissipate, some towards the baseball field and some towards the carpark.

“Hello, David,” Stevie says as he approaches her, “you didn’t have to come and meet me you know, or did you come because you wanted a lift?”

“Oh,” David replies, suddenly remembering, “um, actually, Patrick said he’d give me a lift, so, um.”

“Ohh, Patrick did, did he?” she looks positively overjoyed by his statement, “and how is Patrick, where is he now?”

She links her arm in his as they walk back towards the school, “he is um, a coach for one of the baseball teams so I’m just waiting for the game to be over.”

“Hm, you know if you don’t want to wait then I can always take you back, I’m sure Patrick won’t mind--”

“No! No, I told him I’d watch the game, um, so, I, uh, I think I’ll stay.”

Stevie regards him with interest, “you’re going to watch the whole game?”

“Um, yes, why?”

“David, you hate sports. I don’t think you’ve ever come to one of my baseball games and I’ve been in the Schitt’s Creek team for years.”

“Yes, well, I have to support the students, you know.” David dismisses her comment with a wave of his hand as they stop at the front of the school.

“Mhm, support the students, right.” Stevie replies, rolling her eyes, “say hi to Patrick for me.”

“Mm, nope, thanks though.”

She continues to walk backwards for a minute towards her car, “I like this for you, you know.” She shouts as she gets far enough away.

“I don’t know what you mean.” David shouts back, voice rising in pitch in indignation.

“Enjoy the baseball, David.”

She climbs in her car, and with one more teasing wave out the window, met by a middle finger from David, she is gone.

David sighs, rolling his neck slightly to ease some of the tension that had built up there from that conversation, and making his way towards the field.

He stands a little distance away, where different groups of parents and students are gathered talking and eating grilled food. He cranes his neck as he looks around, spotting Patrick talking to a student on his team, and his jaw drops.

Patrick is wearing a tight fitted green and white baseball uniform, which shows of his chest and shoulders well, and a hat placed clumsily on his head. His matching green shorts leave little to the imagination, and David has to take a moment to collect himself as he takes in the view.

He is not given much time though, and soon enough, Patrick looks up from his conversation with the student and waves at David, jogging easily over.

“Hi, David, I thought you might have changed your mind!” He says as he approaches.

“Um, I- uh, no of course not, I said I would come, didn’t I?”

“You did, and I’m glad you’re here.”

“Really?” David asks, looking down at his shoes and smiling shyly.

“Yeah, um--”

Patrick has just reached out to place a hand on David’s forearm when he is called over by his team.

“You should get back.” David murmurs, and Patrick nods reluctantly.

“You’ll wait?” He asks, looking hopeful.

David just nods, screwing up his mouth in a close-lipped smile as Patrick turns and runs in the opposite direction, and if David takes a long, appreciative look at Patrick’s retreating figure then he figures he can blame it on his exhaustion.

It’s a warm day despite being early November, and David has left his coat inside, for which he is grateful as he can’t help but heat up as he watches Patrick running back and forth.

He zones out a bit during the actual game, finding little interest in the sport and instead opting to text Stevie and update her on the week, as she had had no signal on her trip, and scroll Instagram, in between short glances up to check on where Patrick is.

On one glance up, he sees a student, Connor perhaps although he can’t be sure with the helmet on, swinging and hitting the ball hard, upwards into the air.

It goes behind him, flying over the heads of those playing and coming down in a short arch. An unprepared Patrick looks up just as it comes barrelling down, hitting him squarely in the face and knocking him backwards to drop onto the floor, half in surprise and half due to the impact.

David freezes for a moment in shock, before pocketing his phone and running towards where Patrick has been led towards a bench and is surrounded by people.

He gently pushes his way through the crowd, reaching the front and crouching down in front of Patrick, who has his face cupped in his hands to catch the bleeding coming from his nose.

He pulls a tissue out of his pocket quickly, placing a hand on Patricks knee to steady himself and in a comforting gesture, reaching up to hold it against his nose and catch the blood.

“You alright?” He whispers after a few moments of zoning out the worried conversation taking place behind him, and Patrick dabbing at his nose.

“Yeah I think so.” He pulls the tissue away and David can see a bruise forming, but reaches a hand to feel it and, on finding no sign of permanent damage, lets out a sigh of relief, “have they finished the game?” he asks, looking past David.

David shifts and turns around in surprise to see the majority of the players back by the picnic tables a little while away, all except Ronnie, who is stood a few steps away as if to offer privacy but watching with concern.

“Oh, um--”

“My team won Brewer, even despite their clear lack of skill in batting.” She says, approaching and looking guilty.

“Those are dirty tactics, Ronnie.” Patrick says, snorting and pushing more blood through his nose, which he looks surprised by, but David is unphased, raising a clean tissue up to mop around his face.

Patrick zones off as he looks at David, and Ronnie soon gets the message and makes her leave, shouting a promise about a rematch over her shoulder.

David stays crouched in front of Patrick, hands on his knees, until the crowds depart, heading home for the weekend.

He even stays there after Patrick’s nose has finished bleeding, using up the last of his tissues to pour water from a plastic bottle over one and wipe the dried blood off of his face.

“You’re really good at this.” Patrick murmurs softly after a moment.

“Hmm?”

“Looking after people. You’re very, uh, attentive?”

David smirks, “Only for people I really like.” He says, very quietly, and averting his eyes for a moment.

He thinks Patrick is going to tease him, but instead, when he looks up, his eyes have softened, and he is looking almost surprised by David’s confession. He looks down a moment at David’s lips, and for a moment he thinks he’s going to lean in, but instead, he just smiles.

“Glad to know I make the cut,” Patrick says, smirking but somehow looking almost disappointed before schooling his face back into a neutral expression.

“We should get you home,” David mutters, using his knees to push himself from his crouched position and putting out a hand to pull Patrick up.

He pulls a bit harder than perhaps was necessary and they end up chest to chest, with Patrick breathing heavily and swaying slightly on his feet.

“Are you- are you okay?” David asks breathlessly, hanging on to Patrick to keep him steady.

“Mm, just a little light-headed.” Patrick responds.

David grips Patrick’s biceps and holds them chest to chest for a moment longer, before he’s sure that he isn’t going to collapse on him and leads him slowly towards the carpark.

He deposits Patrick into his passenger seat, who goes without much resistance.

David sits in the driving seat, looking around to familiarise himself with the controls, before putting the car in reverse and heading out of the school grounds.

“I’m so embarrassed.” Patrick mumbles after a few moments of silence.

“Why?”

“I just sneezed blood all over you, when I was trying to - I was trying--” Patrick trails off, fiddling with his fingers in his lap.

“You don’t need to be embarrassed.” David says in response, “honestly, you should have seen me doing sports when I was in high school. I think I got hit in the face by the ball like, every other game.”

Patrick laughs in response, looking like his mood has slightly improved.

“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.” He says consolingly.

“Oh, it really was, some of it was on purpose though. If I got hit, they let me leave early. Obviously, I had to quit after my nose job, it was too much of a risk after that.”

“Ahh, right, of course.” Patrick says nodding understandingly.

They pull up at home, and get out, David rushing around to Patrick’s side of the car to open it and give him a hand and pull him up.

“How are you feeling now?” He asks, taking his hand, less to support him now and more as an excuse to feel their hands clasped together. Patrick doesn’t comment, regardless, and instead, grips back just as hard.

“Embarrassed, a little tired.”

When they arrive at Patrick’s front door, he appears as reluctant to let go as David feels so David hangs back a moment, “what are you going to do now?” He asks, placing Patrick’s bag that he had been carrying on the floor.

“I’m gonna get some sleep I think, this whole thing has given me a headache.” Patrick says sadly.

“Okay,” David pauses a moment longer before letting go of Patrick’s hand and taking a step towards the stairs, “you’ll text me if you need anything? I’m just--” he gestures a pointed hand upwards, and Patrick nods in response, slipping quickly into his apartment as David tramples up the stairs.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day after the baseball, and Freddie has some tricks up his sleeve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want you should listen to Tina Turner's compilation album 'Simply the Best', it's an amazing album not just because the first song is The Best.

David’s dreams that night focus around a certain pair of green baseball shorts, and the very attractive man that was wearing them.

He wakes late on the Saturday, stretching and petting Freddie where his head is rested against his neck.

He stays in bed for the next few hours, until his stomach reminds him of his need to eat, and he heads towards the kitchen to prepare some brunch which ends up consisting of eggs and toast, a hot coffee, and a bowl of fruit.

He naps on the couch for a while after taking his shower, switching between playing phone games, watching tv, and doing some marking.

He is pulled out of the reverie of a new documentary by the ding of his phone somewhere. He pats around his legs, and under his bum, reaching between the cushions before he finds it knocked off the couch and sitting on the floor.

He opens the message from an unsaved number with curiosity, which he recognises as Patrick’s when he reads it.

_16:53 Look who’s back._

Attached is a [photo](https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/601652831456602773/) of Freddie, sprawled out on Patrick’s grey bedsheet looking pleased with himself.

_16:55 Can we convince you to come for dinner?_

David huffs a laugh as he stands up, giving himself a quick critical look over in the mirror and changing into some casual but more presentable clothes, opting for a pair of designer black sweatpants and his Wild Aloof Rebel sweatshirt that matches Freddie’s bowl.

He grabs his keys and slips out of the door, skipping down the stairs and arriving at the bottom just for Patrick to open the door before he can knock.

“Hi,” he says breathlessly, taking in the now more familiar sight of a dressed-down Patrick wearing sweatpants and a navy-blue t-shirt.

“Hi back,” Patrick responds, giving what David hopes is an appreciative look at his outfit before holding the door wider to shoo him in.

“Are you feeling okay? No permanent head injuries or anything?” He jokes, looking Patrick over in concern, nevertheless.

“Yes, David, other than a bruised ego I am perfectly fine. Thank you for, um, taking care of me like that yesterday. I - uh, I’m really glad you came to see the game and were, uh, there and everything.”

David looks over at Freddie who is still looking comfortable on the bed on the other side of the room. “Sorry,” he says turning to Patrick, “I didn’t realise he could fit out of the bathroom window otherwise I wouldn’t have left it open.”

“That’s alright David, I was honestly glad to have him here, he’s good company.”

“What about me?”

“Huh?”

David smiles cheekily and props a hip against the kitchen worktop, “am I good company?”

Patrick laughs, leaning down to pull a bottle of wine from the wooden stand in the corner and holding it up for approval before searching the drawers for a bottle opener. “You are very good company, David.” He coos as he gasps in success and pours them each a glass.

“Thank you,” David says, taking the proffered drink, “cheers”

They tap the rims of their glasses together and Patrick gets started on cooking dinner, waving David over to the record player again and instructing him to put something on.

“What would you put on right now? If I wasn’t here?” David asks after a while of flipping through albums.

“I don’t mind what you put on David; they are all my records after all.” Patrick says, looking up and smiling fondly from where he is chopping vegetables again.

“Humour me?” David pushes, “what do you listen to when nobody else is listening? Any guilty pleasures, or just favourites that you play over so much that anyone else would grow sick of them.”

Patrick sighs, pausing his chopping to think hard for a moment, before placing his knife down and coming to join David. He flips through the albums, fingers brushing David’s hip to move him out of the way, and hands brushing several times, causing a cascade of butterflies to take root in his stomach.

“This one, I think.” Patrick decides, pulling out Tina Turner Simply the Best, and handing it to David to put on.

“This is the compilation one, right?” David asks, as he complies and places it gently on the turntables.

“Mhm, I’ve probably listened to it about a million times at this point,” Patrick confesses, going back to his cooking, “honestly I’m surprised it still plays, I thought I might have burned a hole in it by now.” He catches David’s eye, who is smiling fondly, “are you surprised?”

“No, not surprised.” David hesitates, “I just- um, it’s nice to learn new things like this about you I guess.”

Patricks smile widens, “Yeah?”

David nods, and meanders back to the kitchen, “Did you need a hand with anything?”

Patrick narrows his eyes, “How much experience do you have in the kitchen?” he asks in a teasing tone.

“Not very much unfortunately, sauce from a jar is about the only thing I’m good at.”

David is of course, exaggerating. He had improved a massive amount since moving into his own apartment and was now regularly chopping onions and peppers for simple homemade sauces. Whilst he wasn’t anywhere near as comfortable in the kitchen as most adults his age, he hoped Patrick would respond with some fond teasing.

Instead, Patrick gestures over to where he’s stood by the chopping board. David takes the couple of steps until he’s close-enough for Patrick to grab him by the bicep and pull him, so they are stood shoulder to shoulder.

He places the knife in David’s hand, and then places his own above it, pulling a pepper over, “we can do it together.” He whispers, his warm breath sending goose bumps down David’s spine as it flutters the hairs by his ear.

David manages a nod of agreement as he lets Patrick make the movements for him.

The chopping takes a lot longer than it would have if either of them had done it by themselves, but David can’t bear to point this out when Patrick is stood so closely to him, calloused palms gripping his soft hands firmly.

“All done,” Patrick whispers again, moving away to scrape the peppers into the pan. “I hope fajitas are okay with you?” He asks, his voice returning to normal as he looks up at David.

“Uh- yeah that’s great, thank you for doing this.”

Patrick hurries over to the record player to turn over the disk and stirs the vegetables in the pan before turning the heat down low and heading towards the couch, grabbing David’s hand on his way and pulling him after him to sit next to each other.

Their knees touch as David curls his legs up on one side of the couch, and Patrick keeps his feet on the ground. They are sat far closer than before, with Patrick’s left arm running along the back of the couch tantalisingly close to being around his shoulders.

“Can I ask you something?” he asks, seeming nervous.

David holds his breath and nods, preparing for the worst.

“What happened between you and Stevie?”

He blinks in shock as he takes in the question and lets out a breath of relief. “Oh, er, did she not, um, fill you in on that?”

“She just kind of told me what you did.” Patrick says shrugging slightly, “I just, was curious, about whether or not there might still be, something, there, between you.”

He looks embarrassed for asking, and David is quick to try and ease the situation, “Oh, no, God no.” He fumbles with how to explain it, landing on the truth from the start. “Um, so when we first arrived here, she was working the desk at the motel on weekends and after school hours. She was the first friend I made here, and there was a noticeable lack of opportunities for relationships, and it just kind of happened. But then she um, she said that she had feelings for me, and so we decided to end it, and I--” he closes his eyes for this part of the story, too ashamed to watch Patrick’s reaction, “um, it was not my finest moment, but ultimately I- I stole Roland’s truck and tried to run away.”

“Wow--”

“Yep, got about 3 miles down the road before it was out of gas. Ended up staying on an Amish farm for a while which was um, an experience. But I came back, and we worked through it, because our friendship was important to both of us and we decided it made more sense for us to be friends.”

“That makes sense.”

David looks at Patrick, “really?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“You’re not even going to judge me a little bit? Not even for the running away part?”

“I think that would be a little hypocritical of me, David.” Patrick says, chuckling uncomfortably and looking sheepish. When David looks at him, intrigue written on his face, he wrings his hands and continues. “Um, I don’t really know how to explain it.” He starts.

David places an encouraging hand on his knee which just causes more jitters, but Patrick reaches his right hand out to clasp onto it like a lifeline.

“So, er, before I moved here, I was actually engaged. Um, her name is Rachel. We had been together since high school, on and off. We argued a lot, and I was never - I was never happy with her really, but we would always end up getting back together because it was familiar, and everyone thought we were really great together.”

David’s hand twitches, and Patrick is afraid that he will retract it, but loosens his hold to give him the freedom to move. Instead, David turns his hand, so it is palm-side up, and twines their fingers together. That action is enough to quell Patrick’s fear of judgement, and he continues with increased confidence.

“Um, and then, after about a month of being engaged, I - I don’t know, it just suddenly all felt so suffocating. I broke off the engagement, and I packed all my stuff and I just drove. I was running out of gas when I was passing Schitt’s Creek, so I came in to fill up and that’s where I met Bob. He was very inquisitive, which I now understand, but he told me there was this job available since he was handing in his notice. I interviewed for it, and I got the job, which gave me three months to find somewhere to live for the year at least and to move all my stuff.”

“Do you ever regret it? Moving and leaving your fiancée?” David asks.

“No, no not at all. It was best for both of us, it was never going to work out once I worked out what was holding me back. She came up a couple of days ago actually, to try and win me back and get me to go home.”

“How did that go?” David asks, trying to ask casually despite his sudden realisation of who Patrick’s mystery guest had been.

“It went pretty well, actually, once I explained it to her properly. She was upset, obviously, but she understood it, and I think we left off at a good place. Maybe we will never be friends in the way you and Stevie are, but I like to think that there is no real hatred there.”

“Oh, I um, I think I saw her leaving.” David says, quietly, as if expecting Patrick to be angry with him.

Instead he just nods, “yeah, she came that evening and we talked about it, she slept on the couch and left early in the morning to head back. I think she was embarrassed about coming down and she didn’t want to go to the motel because she’d assumed that I would be leaving with her or um- that she would, uh, be staying with me.”

David offers a small smile as Patrick breaths out in relief, looking like he’s just run a marathon.

“Thank you for telling me all that.” He says, voice laced with sincerity.

“I like telling you stuff, David.” Patrick says, returning the sincerity tenfold, and offering a soft-eyed look, “you’re easy to talk to.”

“Hmm, thank you. I’m pretty sure you’re the only person who has ever thought that.” David replies, blushing slightly at the compliment.

They smile at each other for a moment, content to just look at each other fondly and enjoy the moment.

A new song starts, and David wiggles excitedly, “Mm, I love this song.” He says.

Patrick pauses, and then moves to stand, not letting go of David’s hand as he pulls him up. “Come on, then.” He says, reaching for the other hand and moving towards the space between the living area and the bathroom door.

“Patrick Brewer, what on earth are you doing?” David asks, laughing as Patrick pushes and pulls on his arms in a clumsy attempt to get him to dance.

“I’m dancing,” Patrick replies, pulling him closer, a teasing glint in his eyes, “I don’t know what you’re doing though, looks more like flopping to me.”

David barks out a surprised laugh as he becomes looser and moves more freely with Patrick. He’s slightly taller and moves far more awkwardly than him, but Patrick doesn’t seem to mind, and he appears content to just bop back and forth together.

“ _I’m your private dancer, a dancer for money, I’ll do what you want me to do._ ” Patrick sings along under his breath as they spin around.

“Hmm, not the most romantic of songs is it?” David muses.

“Romantic, huh?” Patrick looks surprised but pleased, and David’s cheeks redden.

“Um, I didn’t mean - I uh--”

“I’ll show you romantic.” Patrick says, with his voice lowered, and pulls David flush against him, dipping him inelegantly before pulling him back up so that David’s hand is pressed against his chest whilst Patrick’s rest in the dip at the small of his back.

“Oh--” David breathes through a surprised laugh.

The song ends without either of them making a move, but David can’t find it in himself to be frustrated, as they sway, pressed closely together, and Patrick’s hand begins drawing small patterns on his back.

Suddenly, an alarm blares, and Patrick rushes over to the kitchen as the smell of burning becomes clear to both of them.

“Shit,” he mutters as he scrapes charred peppers from the bottom of the pan. He grabs a tea towel to wave haphazardly at the alarm which eventually turns off, after some convincing.

He turns to David looking guilty and tries to force a smile, “Um, don’t leave. I can, uh, start again, I have some more stuff, or um, we could have something else or--”

David just laughs, “I could order us a pizza?” He asks, already pulling his phone out of his pocket and looking for approval.

“Sure, that sounds good, thank you David.” Patrick says in relief, scraping the leftover food into the bin and placing the pan in the sink, “um, can I top-up your drink?”

Food arrives, and they settle on the couch together, Freddie making a brief appearance in the hope of stealing some food but quickly giving up when it’s made clear that the pizza is not for him.

“Mm, this is good, almost makes me forget the smell of burning.” David jokes, as he places a large piece in his mouth.

“Tell me about it, I think this is the best pizza North of New York.” Patrick responds.

When there is only one piece left, they both look at it awkwardly. “Here,” Patrick says, picking up the slice, “we can share, you take the first bite.”

He holds the slice up to David’s mouth, slightly raised so he has to dip his head back slightly to catch the string of cheese. He bites down with his eyes closed, and Patrick watches in rapt attention, suddenly finding it harder to breathe.

“Thank you,” David murmurs as he chews, and raises a hand to his mouth to catch the rest of the bite.

He looks at him strangely, and this is enough to bring Patrick back into the real world, as he realises that he hasn’t taken his bite and had instead been sat watching David for the last minute.

He hastily shoves the pizza into his mouth, chewing and swallowing without really tasting it.

After an hour or so of eating and talking, David is getting more and more comfortable with the couch, sinking into the cushions more every drink, and lifting his feet to place them alongside himself.

They both drain their wine glasses, and Patrick takes a moment to refill them, as well as opening a can of food for Freddie.

Upon returning to the couch, he finds David curled up and breathing deeply, fast asleep. He smiles momentarily as he takes in the view before realising that he’s been caught by Freddie, who is stood nearby watching him curiously, his head tilted to one side.

He winces and places the wine glasses on the side, and heads over to the bed to pull off the large red blanket, which he then lays softly over David’s sleeping form.

He can’t resist placing a quick kiss on David’s forehead, which immediately softens under his touch, and loses its tense nature.

“Goodnight, David.” He mutters as he moves to sit by David’s feet, a book out and Freddie curled in his lap.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David's birthday and a celebration for everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg there was only one taxi.

David wakes up with a crick in his neck, and an aching all the way down his spine. He snuffles and shifts, feeling Freddie re-arranging himself on his chest.

He starts as he takes in the room. It is not the first time David has woken up in an unfamiliar place with few memories of how he has gotten there, but it is the first time it has happened since he moved to Schitt’s Creek.

As he rubs the dry skin out of his eyes, he looks around the apartment, noticing the familiar layout and the less familiar but still comforting decorations.

He’s at Patrick’s. It’s pitch-black outside, and the lights are off, but he can make out the shape of a person lying in the bed under the covers, curled to one side. Freddie meows in frustration as he sits up and pushes him off of him. In an instant the cat is jumping off the sofa and onto the bed, where he crawls up from the bottom of the sheet and makes himself at home next to Patrick.

“Traitor,” David mumbles, but blushes as he sees Patrick move out a hand to stroke Freddie sleepily.

“You alright?” He whispers as he sees David sat up.

“Mhm, what, um, what time is it?”

Patrick reaches for his phone, and the screen lights up his tired features for a moment, “it’s half two.”

“Hmm.”

David is hit suddenly with how exhausted he is and turns to try and make the sofa more comfortable. Hitting the cushions that definitely weren’t there before with his fist and flopping back onto them.

“David?” Patrick whispers after a moment, seeming to still teeter between being awake and asleep, “you can come sleep up here if you want?”

He hesitates, not responding for a moment.

“You don’t have to.” Patrick adds after the silence grows uncomfortable, “I wasn’t trying to--”

“No. No I’m, um, I’m coming.”

David slowly picks up his blanket and pillow and makes his way to the bed, settling himself above the comforter a safe distance from where Patrick’s breath has evened out again, and curls up under the red blanket, listening to the sound of Patrick’s light snoring soothing him back to sleep.

***

When he wakes up the next time, it’s to Freddie jumping onto him and playful kneading at his stomach. He lets out a breath at the impact and laughs lightly as he strokes the cats head, only then realising that he has his own head pushed into something.

He glances his eyes up to see Patrick, sitting up against the cushions with a book in hand whilst David’s head is pushed intimately into his hip.

“Good morning,” Patrick says fondly from where he is looking down at David, an amused glint in his eye.

“Mhm,” David says in response, hesitating a moment to take in the feeling of being in bed with Patrick before realising how inappropriate that is, and moving slowly but surely away, and off the bed and out from the blanket. “Um, thank you for, letting me uh, sleep here? I probably should have just--” He mutters as he rubs the heel of his hand over his eye.

Patrick shakes his head as he puts his book down on the bedside table. He is wearing a pair of blue plaid pyjamas and a tight grey t-shirt which David can’t help but notice fits his arms tightly, “that’s okay, it wasn’t any trouble I - um, I kind of liked having you here.” He says quietly, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Hmm, yes, well, um, I must have been more tired than I realised.” David replies, “I promise I’m not usually that boring it was just--”

“David? It wasn’t a problem, really.” Patrick insists as he watches him stand up and stretch.

“I um, I’ve been enough of an imposition, I should, uh, go back to my apartment and get this one fed.” David says, gesturing to Freddie who is sat at the foot of the bed, looking curiously between the two men as if watching a tennis game.

“Oh, um, okay, yeah you’re probably right, lots to do and everything.” Patrick stands up as well and follows David as he picks up the cat and carries him across the room to the door, “but hey, um, I really enjoyed last night. You should, er, we could do it again? Maybe?”

David smiles softly as Patrick holds the apartment door in, immediately feeling the chill of the outside entering the apartment, “sure,” he says with a wave, climbing the stairs deftly to hurry back to his own apartment.

He arrives and immediately closes the door, holding a hand over his face and blushing furiously, but unable to keep the smile off his face as he thinks about the man downstairs, in his adorable apartment with his adorable dimples, and weirdly adorable snores.

His reverie is interrupted by an angry looking Freddie, meowling up at him.

“Okay, okay,” David acquiesces, “let’s get you fed then you little monster.”

***

David and Patrick continue their little routine for the next couple of days. They drive to work together, make each other’s drinks, tease each other just a little too comfortably, and spend almost every free hour together until they arrive back home, and head off to different apartments.

David is not known to be a patient man, and he is almost certain now that Patrick is into him. He’s like 57% certain. It fluctuates.

A couple of days later, they are just walking into the staff room, when they are accosted by an excited looking Stevie.

“Happy Birthday, David.” She says, voice laden with false cheer, and a teasing look on her face.

He accepts the coffee she is handing him with a small grin, and heads over to their usual seats, looking behind him when he notices Patrick is no longer following.

“It’s your birthday?” Patrick asks, looking almost upset by the news.

“Um, yeah? I don’t really like to make a big deal out of it though, my family don’t usually, um, remember, so I just don’t really like to fuss.” David says, still standing up and watching Patrick’s facial journey.

“You never told me!”

“I- I’m sorry, I’ll tell you now, how about that?” Patrick hesitantly smiles, as David sidles up to him, poking him repeatedly on the arm teasingly, “Hey, Patrick?” He says in a childish voice.

“Yes, David?” Patrick says, now unable to hold his grin back as David moves into his space.

“It’s my birthday today.”

“Well, Happy Birthday. How old are we?”

“Okay, this ends there, thank you so much.” David says, face dropping the smile and stepping away moodily to return to his coffee.

He turns around to see the whole room of teachers watching them with interest, some looking amused and some exasperated.

“So, what are your plans for today?” Patrick asks, shaking off the inquisitive eyes of their colleagues and taking a seat.

“Oh, nothing big, just a casual weeknight. I’ll probably just have a drink and fall asleep with Freddie as usual.”

“Hmm,” Patrick seemed to hesitate before he dove in, “that doesn’t seem right. We should, uh, do something for your birthday, maybe, um, maybe I could take you for drinks or something?”

“Drinks could be good.” Stevie says, and Patrick jumps as if only just made aware of her presence in the conversation.

“And Stevie, could also, be there.” Patrick adds as an afterthought, blushing slightly.

“Ooh did someone say we were celebrating?” Ray asks from across the room, looking excited.

“… and Ray?”

“If there’s alcohol then I’m in.” Ronnie adds.

“I’m sure I could get Rollie to look after Roland Jr.” Jocelyn also offers.

Patrick looks lost, but when he looks to David he is looking softly at the room and so he sighs, and pats a hand on David’s knee, “what do you say? Drinks tonight, with everyone? We can have a proper birthday celebration.”

“Yeah, um, sure, that sounds good.” David says, and the others eagerly start chatting about outfits and locations and celebrating. David, however, looks to Patrick next to him, and lets his hand brush over the one on his knee. “Thank you for this.” He says quietly.

“Anytime, David.”

***

They head out straight after work; David, and Patrick, joined by Stevie, Ray, Jocelyn, and Ronnie.

Patrick suddenly wishes that he had taken the opportunity to change before heading out; his blazer sitting snugly on his shoulders and making him appear far more formal than the rest of the group.

The Wobbly Elm was the only place any of them could think of, so it was where they went.

Patrick buys the first round, since it was his idea, and they all raise their shots.

“Happy birthday, David.” Patrick says, looking across the small round bar table they are crowding, and looking him in the eye.

He looks pleased, and tips his head back to take the shot, the arch of his throat suddenly visible, and making Patrick feel weak at the knees so he throws back his own drink quickly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he swallows.

When he looks up, David is looking at him with what he thinks might be the same expression he had had on his own face, which fills Patrick with confidence. He smirks and offers half a wink at the other man as Ronnie calls for the next round.

The night only regresses from there. It turns out that after a long day of work and being surrounded by later-in-life adults, some of whose tolerance has gone out of the window since having a child, only makes for an incredibly messy night.

About an hour and a half in, Patrick is sat on the floor of the bar with Jocelyn, both with their knees brought up to their chests. He is tipsy, but not drunk, feeling a light buzz in a way that tingles in his hands and toes, but does little to massively alter his self-perception and behaviour.

“I- I just think, that he is the most” she hiccoughs, “wonderful, wonderful man. But god, Patrick, his feet smell.” She looks at him, and he places a hand on her back in a way he hopes is soothing, “do you- do you know what I mean?”

Patrick looks surprised, but nods slightly, rubbing her back more in lieu of having to respond.

He looks up as he sees feet approaching him, only minorly disappointed when he sees Ronnie.

“Alright,” she says, reaching down and heaving Jocelyn off the floor, “it’s time we got you home.” She looks to Patrick, and nods towards where David and Stevie seem to be in a heated discussion about something. “I’m taking the cab with her and Ray. I assume you’ll want to stay longer.”

“Thanks, Ronnie, are you--?” He offers to help, but Ronnie swats him away.

“Go and talk to him, before he loses interest.” She says sharply, leading the two incredibly drunk teachers out of the room.

Well, that will make for an interesting Thursday he supposes.

Patrick approaches the pair over by the table the group had started on, and boldly places a hand on David’s back to notify him of his presence.

“Hey,” he says quietly, as David moves to give him room to slot into the conversation.

“Hi, is Ronnie--?”

“Taking them home, I think they both hit way over their limits.”

Stevie snorts into her drink, and David just smiles again.

“Can I get you another drink?” Patrick asks, eyeing the empty glass in his hand.

“Um, yeah, sure, can I just have another polar bear shot?”

“Sure, coming right up.”

Patrick is just heading back over to the bar when Stevie coughs, “I’ll take one as well thanks Patrick.” She says cheekily.

He looks round, surprised and slightly embarrassed, “sure, for you too, Stevie.”

She looks knowingly between the two of them and nods, still smirking.

Patrick heads to the bar and orders six drinks, tapping his fingers as he waits for them. As he waits, an attractive man approaches him on the right.

“Hey,” he says, in a flirty tone, “For my sake, I hope you’re here on your own?”

“Oh, um, no,” Patrick sputters back, “Um, I’m with--”

He points his hand towards where David and Stevie are laughing about something. David is bent down slightly as he laughs, but his head is thrown back and he has lines scattered around his eyes.

“Oh, friends?” The man asks.

“Um, yeah, yeah friends.”

“I’m Ken by the way.” The man - Ken - holds his hand out and Patrick shakes it in response.

“Patrick.”

“So, I know you’re here with your friends, but I caught sight of you across the bar, as cheesy as that sounds, and maybe you’d take my number and call me or something?”

“Oh, uh,” Patrick is surprised, as the guy pulls a napkin from across the bar and scribbles his number down on it, “I’m flattered, really,” he says, taking the napkin by reflex and holding it in his hand, “but I’m actually kind of, um, seeing someone?”

Across the bar, David and Stevie are watching with rapt attention, having calmed down from their laughing fit and looked around for their drinks.

“Well, hello Patrick.” Stevie says approvingly, “someone’s got their eye on your man.”

“He’s not my man,” David replies, rolling his eyes.

Patrick talks to the man for a few more minutes, before he grabs their drinks and heads back to the table.

“Polar bear shots for everyone,” he says as he places the little tray down, and everyone reaches for their drinks.

They down their first one before Stevie can start asking, “so, who was that very attractive man at the bar, Patrick?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, his name was Chris or something? I’m not one hundred percent sure.”

“But he gave you something, what did he give you?” Stevie pushes, as Patrick reluctantly reaches into his back pocket and pulls out the napkin.

Stevie grabs it before he can stop her, “ _In case you stop seeing someone, here’s my number, Ken._ And a winking face!” she says in triumph, bouncing away from David’s arms as he reaches out to take a look. “Somebody pulled!”

“I didn’t pull.” Patrick laughs, rolling his eyes, “I told him I wasn’t interested.”

“Hmm, sure, that’s what you told him.”

David stays silent for this interaction, chewing his bottom lip in thought, his eyebrows furrowed. They all tip back their necks as they down their second drinks.

“Right, that’s enough for me I think.” Stevie says, “We have work tomorrow and some of us really don’t look good hungover.” She gestures at David, who makes a crude hand gesture in response.

She heads out of the bar without waiting for a response, waving over her shoulder.

“Um, we should probably, um, head back too.” Patrick suggests after a moment.

“Mhm, yeah definitely,” David agrees, collecting their glasses and placing them on the tray quickly to make it easier to clean. “We should probably catch up with Stevie and share her taxi otherwise we’ll have to wait for him to drive back.”

“There- is there only one taxi?” Patrick asks, laughing in delight.

“Hmm, one of the many quirks of this town I guess,” David jokes, and they step out of the doors just in time to watch Stevie wave from the taxi window.

“That bitch.” David mutters under his breath as they watch her go, but Patrick can only laugh in response.

“What’s the action plan then Mr Rose? Are we feeling fit enough for a walk or are we gonna go back in and wait?”

David considers for a moment, “I could do with a walk.” He says.

Fortunately, they had both had enough forethought to wear jackets, and the air is cool but comfortable as they start the twenty-minute walk back to the apartments.

“Did you have a good night tonight?” Patrick asks after a few moments.

“Mhm, I had quite a sad celebration planned for tonight, so this was a vast improvement thanks to you.” David says in response, his eyes going soft and unguarded as he looks at Patrick. “Did you?”

“Hmm?”

“Did you have a good time?”

Patrick huffs a laugh. “I did, thank you. I, um, I like it here. I like working here, um, with you.”

David beams at the compliment. They continue the walk, in silence, for a while, and the apartment comes into view as they turn onto the road.

It’s now or never.

“Can I ask a question?” David asks, stopping suddenly and gripping Patrick’s arm to pull him to a stop too. They stand on the pavement for a moment facing each other, under a large tree at the end of the road, perhaps twenty paces from their homes. “Why did you - um. Why did you tell that guy that you were seeing someone?”

“Um, I just wasn’t interested.” Patrick mumbles, sticking his hands in his pockets and shuffling around awkwardly.

“Because he’s a guy?” David asks, looking pained as he closes his eyes slightly and waits for the response.

“What? No, no not because he’s a guy.” Patrick says, looking up at him in surprise.

“Oh, um, I’m sorry, I just assumed--”

“You thought I was--?”

They both pause as they talk over each other, both looking confused and looking away for a moment.

“Did you not know that I’m into guys?” Patrick asks quietly, looking almost relieved when David shakes his head. “But- but we talked about - that argument with Alexis?”

“What about it?” David replies, struggling to follow the conversation.

“I- I apologised afterwards?”

David frowns, “Yeah, you apologised because we argued about it, and because you shouted at her I--”

“David, I apologised because I thought it made you uncomfortable that everyone knew how I feel about you!” Patrick exclaims, his expression balancing somewhere between frustrated and amused.

David freezes, his whole body tensing as he looks at Patrick disbelievingly, “How- how you feel about me? How do you feel about me?”

Patrick fidgets, looking uncomfortable, before his face becomes steeled, and he takes a step towards David. “Like this,” he mutters, placing both hands on David’s face and leaning in.

Their lips brush tentatively at first, David unresponsive for less than a moment before jumping to life and returning the kiss with eagerness. His hands flail for a moment, one settling over Patrick’s hand on his own face, and the other skimming underneath the open flap of his coat to rest carefully on the belt of his jeans.

It’s a clumsy kiss, but a warm one, and David can’t help but let a small whine out when Patrick pulls away, still holding his face but far enough away to make eye contact.

“Um, I - uh, how do we feel about that?” He asks, looking nervous.

“How about I show you?” David asks with a chuckle, taking the lead on the second kiss, placing his hands firmly on Patrick’s neck, and opening his mouth a little to coax out his tongue, teasingly sucking on it slightly and feeling Patrick moan slightly at the sensation.

They trade playful kisses in the moonlight for what feels like a lifetime, before David pulls away, laughing again when Patrick lets out a whine similar to his own.

“I, um,” he falters as Patrick turns to kiss across his face and down his neck, pausing to rub his face against his stubble. “Maybe we should take this inside?”

“Inside?” Patrick croaks, looking up from where he is sucking a light bruise into David’s neck.

“Um, I wasn’t assuming, maybe, not for. I didn’t mean to--”

Patrick kisses away David’s ramblings and smiles blindingly at him. “Come home with me?” He growls, which forces a laugh out of David, who nods, and is pulled along by Patrick to the apartments.

They don’t let go of each other’s hands as they enter the apartment, only severing their connection at the last possible moment to take off their jackets.

David suddenly feels anxious and twists the rings around on his right hand as he looks around the now familiar apartment. His brain supplies plenty of material to make him panic. Patrick had said that Alexis had revealed how he felt about him; did that mean that Patrick only wanted to screw him and get it over with?

David shamefully thought he would probably take what he could get at this point.

As if sensing his spiralling thoughts, Patrick steps over and places his hands gently on David’s shoulders to comfort his stress.

“Can I give you something?” He asks quietly.

“Um, what do you mean?”

“I have a present for you, um, for your birthday?” Patrick blushes awkwardly, as David looks up, curious.

“But, but you didn’t know it was my birthday?”

“No, I, um, it wasn’t going to be a, um, a birthday present per se. I was kind of waiting for the right, uh, opportunity to give it to you.” Patrick opens the drawer of one of his side-boards and pulls out a long velvet box.

David looks at it suspiciously but accepts it when it is offered to him. He opens it slowly, fingers trembling slightly, and finds a black collar inside, with a silver tag, and a bell attached.

“Oh my God.” He says breathlessly, running his finger along the engraving, reading the words _Wild Aloof Rebel._

“Mhm, it also has, um, it has your phone number on it as well.” Patrick adds, reaching in and flipping the tag over, “and the bell, so maybe next time you’ll be able to hear him escaping and can text me a warning, or, or something.”

David laughs, voice slightly thick as he tries to hold in pathetic tears, “when, when did you get this?” He asks, looking up at Patrick fondly.

“Oh, um, actually I got it on Sunday, I, um, I drove to Elmdale after you left here and got it made, I was going to find an opportunity to give it to you but I thought tonight made sense.” Patrick says looking sheepish. “It’s nothing really, it wasn’t even--”

“This is not nothing.” David insists, gently placing the box down on the table next to him and watching as Patricks whole face smiles in response. He approaches slowly and places his arms around Patrick’s neck. “Can I--?”

Patrick doesn’t wait for him to finish before rushing forward and pressing their lips together in a heat-filled kiss. David groans at the sensation and smiles into the kiss, as Patrick pushes him up against the wall next to the door and slots his knee between David’s thighs.

They pull away for breath for a moment, and Patrick goes back to kissing and rubbing his face against David’s neck.

“Mm, that feels good.” David gasps, as Patrick grips his hips and pushes him slightly further into the wall. David rolls up in response and feels their erections rub together momentarily.

Patrick’s reaction is almost frenzied. He pulls back up to slot their mouths clumsily together, tongues playfully tentatively meeting and pulling back, to press smaller, chaste pecks.

“Mm, can we, go--” Patrick gestures over to the bed, and David nods quickly before moving back to the kiss. He walks Patrick backwards until his knees hit the bed, and then moves to straddle him.

They make quick work of their clothes, David sitting up to pull his sweater over his head and place it carefully to the side, before turning back and unbuttoning Patrick’s shirt, layering hot kisses to the skin he reveals in the process.

“Mm- David, stop, can we just--” He pulls away, watching Patrick pant and try to calm down.

“Are you okay?” He asks wincing.

“Yes! Yes, I’m more than- I’m more than okay.” Patrick re-assures him by moving one hand over David’s chest, the other propping him up on the bed. “I just think I should tell you - before we go any further. Um, I- I haven’t done anything with a- with a guy before.”

“Oh,” David replies, moving slightly as if to get off before Patrick stops him by tightening his fist into the front of his black undershirt.

“No, I - I am sure about being gay, and I- I’ve wanted this with you specifically for- um. I just needed you to know that I’m um, not that experienced? I just- I want this to be good for you.”

David sighs in relief, leaning down to press a soft kiss to Patrick’s lips, “this is already good for me,” he murmurs, cupping Patrick’s face and looking at him fondly, “and we don’t have to do anything else if you’re not ready, we can go as slow or as fast as you like.” He winks slightly at the last part, more to get Patrick to laugh than anything, which he achieves.

“I want to- I want to um--” Patrick trails off, looking nervous.

“What do you want, Mr Brewer?” David whispers, laughing again when Patrick swats as his arm.

“That’s something to explore another time, Mr Rose.”

“Oh,” David says, surprise and also excitement evident in his voice.

“Will you touch me again, David?”

And how can he deny him that?

David runs a tentative hand up Patrick’s chest, pausing slightly to stroke his thumb over his left nipple and watching with interest as it causes him to arch his back against the bed and hiss slightly.

David leans down to kiss the sound out of his mouth, and Patrick comes to life underneath him, running his hands down David’s sides and pulling his t-shirt quickly over his head.

“Mmph,” Patrick mumbles through the kiss, “get these off.” He says pulling at David’s jeans.

David sighs as he climbs off the bed and makes quick work of his tight jeans, doing the same for Patrick who is watching him openly.

He slips his blue, straight-legged jeans down and off his legs, and kneels on the floor in front of him. He looks up for approval before kissing up and down Patrick’s thighs, skimming the legs of his boxers, and running his fingers under the seam.

“Da-vid,” Patrick chokes, his head thrown back and vein pulsing in his neck.

David mouths the tip of Patrick’s very obvious erection through the material, taking in the scent, before removing them all together.

“You look so--” he says, immediately moving to kiss and lick teasingly. He wastes no time in kneeling up and taking Patrick’s entire length in his mouth, moving up and down slowly and running his tongue up and down the front.

Patrick is like jelly as he squirms against the bed, thrusting around for more friction. David does as requested, and tightens his mouth against him, bobbing with more purpose now as Patrick thrusts desperately into the wet heat of his mouth.

“Fuck, David, you look so--” he groans as he watches his own dick disappear into the pink of David’s mouth. He flutters his eyes open slightly as he takes it in, looking up through his lashes momentarily before pushing himself all the way down to take in the full amount.

It doesn’t take long for Patrick to feel the heat rising in his abdomen, he reaches out a hand frantically to find something to hold, “David! David,” he mutters urgently, “I want a - please.”

He leads one of David’s hands to his back and encourages him to tease a finger around the dryness of his rim.

That sensation is enough to make him come loose, releasing into David’s mouth and moaning wantonly as David continues to bob his head through his orgasm, milking him through it and swallowing almost effortlessly, before looking up and smiling fondly.

David pulls off as his dick begins to soften and moves up to lie with Patrick sideways on the bed, “thank you, David.” Patrick mumbles, moving to rest his head on David’s chest, “can I--” he asks, moving a hand down towards David’s boxers.

“Um, already taken care of.” David replies, blushing furiously and covering his face with his hands as Patrick sits up and looks at him in surprise.

“You--”

“It didn’t take much,” he says, looking embarrassed.

Patrick leans up to kiss him softly, tasting himself on David’s tongue. “Next time I want to make you come, David.” He growls after a moment.

David smiles shyly at the implication of a next time, and nods, whining pathetically and reaching his arms out as Patrick stands and moves towards the bathroom, returning with a wet towel and clean boxers.

He makes quick work of cleaning them up and grabs a t-shirt out of his drawer for each of them, handing one to David to put on between short, teasing kisses.

They pull back the comforter but before they can settle in, there’s a scratching noise from outside.

“Is that--?” Patrick asks, with a grin. He moves over to the window and opens it to allow Freddie to jump in.

“Oh my God,” David mutters from where he is sat up against the pillows, “he plays match maker for three weeks but can’t even give us one night to ourselves!”

He lets Freddie butt his head against his hand though, and strokes him fondly, “How did he get out this time?” Patrick asks, moving to the other side of the bed and slipping in next to David and immediately moulding into his side.

“I texted Alexis to ask her to feed him tonight, and she must have opened a window or something.” David replies, sighing in content as Patrick pulls him down by the waist and places himself behind him as the big spoon.

Freddie soon grows bored and after one final pet, jumps off the bed and heads for the couch.

“That’s funny,” Patrick says thoughtfully, “he always slept up here before. He’s spent most of his time here on the bed.”

“Mm, maybe he was trying to tell me something.” David jokes, and hears Patrick breathe out a laugh through his nose, before fitting himself comfortably in behind David, so they are touching nearly head to toe.

They fall asleep like that, wrapped up in each other and perfectly content.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David and Patrick try to deal with their new relationship in a work environment.

In an uncharacteristic show of strength, David wakes up before Patrick the next morning. They had shifted in the night so that they were now facing each other, soft breaths tickling their faces and making their hair flutter every couple of seconds.

David takes a few moments to study Patrick’s face, the slight freckles scattered across his nose that are only visible from this close, the way his eyelashes fan across his cheeks, and the tiny patch of dry skin under his eyes.

He is just making a mental assessment of what moisturiser would be best for Patrick’s skin type when he spots his eyes scrunching a little as Patrick wakes up.

He wastes no time in shuffling away across the bed, only to be stopped when Patrick sticks his arm out under the comforter, and grasps at his chest.

“Where are you going?” Patrick whines, still without opening his eyes.

“Um, nowhere, I was just--”

David freezes as Patrick pulls himself across the bed to follow him and settle where David had moved to. He rests his head on David’s chest and sighs, seeming on the verge of falling back to sleep.

“I have an alarm set,” Patrick mumbles, from where his head is still buried in the bedding.

As he says that, the incessant beeping of his phone starts, and he groans.

“I never thought you’d be like this in the morning.” David says, stifling a grin as Patrick is forced to sit up and move even further back to his side of the bed to turn off the noise.

“Mm, only when I have a really good reason to stay in bed.” Patrick replies, still looking moody and rubbing at his face petulantly.

“Well, what if that really good reason moved to the shower? And was more than happy to have some company. How about that?” He asks, batting his eyes and biting his lip enticingly as Patrick’s face seems to perk up.

“Yep,” Patrick says, coming to life and all but pushing David off the bed, following quickly behind, “come on, David, no time to lose.”

***

After getting dressed, Patrick does the run up to David’s apartment to grab clothes and hair product since David refuses to be seen in public (the stairwell) before he has done his skin care routine. He lets himself in, looking around in rushed interest as he looks for the things he has been instructed to collect.

He returns, letting himself back in to find a naked David still standing in his bathroom. His eyes run up and down before David is grabbing the items from his outstretched hand and pushing him out of the door with a rushed “thank you, byee.”

Patrick just chuckles, and moves to pack up his things for work, turning when David emerges from the bathroom, hair coiffed to perfection and smelling of cedar and pine in an intoxicating way.

“Hi,” David says shyly when he sees Patrick watching.

“Hi.”

Patrick moves timidly towards David, which is strange considering they had literally showered together a mere half hour earlier. He smiles awkwardly as David raises his arms to his shoulders and gives him a short peck on the lips.

“I can’t believe I get to do that now.” David mumbles, smushing his face into Patricks neck in an unsuccessful attempt to hide the glee evident on his face.

“Mm, you’re telling me.” Patrick replies, pulling him back up for another short kiss. “I like this sweater on you.” He says, running one hand up and down the arm of the soft, fluffy white sweater, with thick black lines crossing it.

David chuckles, blushing again.

They pull apart after a moment and look at each other fondly.

“Hey, we should talk about this.” Patrick says after a moment, arms still moving up and down David’s, making the most of the soft fabric underneath him.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, we work together, we need to be professional, and I think we need to have a conversation about what we’re both comfortable with.”

“Hmm, or we could not have this conversation and you could go back to showing me that thing you do with your tongue?” David says teasingly, pouting and leaning in for another kiss which Patrick accepts before pulling back fully.

“David!”

“Fine!” He exclaims, his voice rising in pitch as he thinks, “I- um, I don’t think we should tell people about us yet, not until we have worked out what this is, and um, what we both want.”

“Agreed. But I hope I’ve been clear to you David that I very much know what I want.” Patrick replies, leaning in and looking flirty.

“Oh, and what’s that?”

“I just want you, David. In any form that you’ll take me, I just want you.”

David looks up to the ceiling to hold back his tears before looking back down and taking a deep breath. “Okay, you can’t say that sort of thing to me this early in the morning, we should add that to the list.”

“Noted.” Patrick says, smirking anyway.

“And I can think of several ways I could take you right now so don’t tempt me like that.”

Patrick just laughs, shaking his head as he reaches out for his satchel on the floor. “Come on Mr Rose, we’ve got to go to work.” He says, holding out his hand for David to take and pulling him towards the door.

***

They arrive in the break room, which is uncharacteristically quiet, as Jocelyn, Ray, and Stevie are all slumped in chairs looking miserable.

“Good morning David.” Ronnie says cheerfully from where she is stood clattering a spoon around in a mug far more than necessary for stirring her coffee, “how are we feeling today.”

David laughs, “I’m doing very well, Ronnie, how about yourself.” He says loudly, eliciting a groan from the room.

“Please shut up, David, my head feels like it’s going to implode.” Stevie groans, from where she is curled up on her chair, sunglasses shoved hastily over her eyes.

Patrick enters, already having arranged that David should go in first in a needless attempt not to seem suspicious despite everyone knowing that they had been sharing rides to work, and looks around the room humorously.

“Wow,” he says, chuckling, and moving over to the kitchen to make his and David’s drinks.

“Good morning Brewer,” Ronnie says, shifting slightly so she’s out of his way. “You’re surprisingly chipper this morning, I gather you had a successful evening?”

Patrick blushes, and looks over to where David is poking Stevie and chattering to her, before looking back to see Ronnie’s eagle eyes trained on his face. “Um, it was a good night,” he says, “did you not--”

“Don’t screw with me Brewer.” She says, smirking and following his eyes as they move once again to David.

They are brought out of this conversation by Jocelyn, “I don’t really think I remember most of last night.” She says suddenly, “I didn’t remember how much my tolerance would go down since I had Roland Jr.”

“Oh, I don’t think it went down that much Jocelyn. I’ve definitely seen you like that before.” Ronnie says, moving to sit down.

Patrick carries over the two mugs, handing one to David who silently smiles up a thanks, and sitting down next to him.

“I must agree with Jocelyn.” Ray chimes in, “I can’t remember a thing after that third round of polar bear shots.”

“What I want to know is what happened after we left.” Ronnie says, looking almost devilish.

David and Patrick shuffle away from each other slightly, avoiding looking up from their drinks.

They are saved by the bell ringing, and everyone gets up to head to their classrooms. As they leave the staffroom Patrick reaches out and clasps David’s arm slightly.

“Will you have lunch with me?” He asks quickly.

David smiles, “sure, will you come to me? Stevie has other plans so we can sit together in my room?”

“Sounds good.”

They hesitate a moment longer before turning on their heels and walking towards their respective departments.

As David arrives at the classroom, the headache that he should have expected from last night hits suddenly. It’s worsened when he walks in and is met by a cacophony of noise.

“Alright, alright, one at a time, what’s happening.” David says sharply, one hand over his eyes and one out in front of him as if to stop the onslaught of questions being thrown at him.

He bats off heated questions about the assessment, and about the geography trip from the previous week, and about the baseball game, and the class settles down slightly. It’s a double period with the seniors so he gives them a five-minute comfort break in the middle of it and is just sitting down at his desk when there is a knock on the door.

Patrick sticks his head in, “Mr Rose? Can I speak to you a minute outside?” he asks.

David widens his eyes in surprise but nods and follows him outside to the empty corridor.

Patrick immediately crowds into his space; his hands on his hips and face leaning up for a kiss, which David accepts speedily, before pulling away fully and pushing at Patrick’s shoulders to get him to take a step away.

“That was not discreet!” David hisses sharply, “what happened to not telling anyone?”

“I didn’t tell anyone, I just - I had a free period and I needed to see you. Just to, make sure?”

David softens as he sees the anxiety in Patrick’s posture, he screws up his mouth but doesn’t reach out to grab him like he so dearly wants. “Well I- I’m happy to see you. But no more of this on school grounds. I’m pretty sure Ronnie is already onto us, Stevie definitely knows something by now and is probably watching us from across the hall, and there are students everywhere!”

Patrick looks suitably admonished and nods.

“I wouldn’t say no to you bringing me a coffee though. Since it is your free period and all.” David continues, walking his fingers along Patrick’s shoulders.

This coaxes a smile out of him, and he nods, looking back towards David one last time. “I’ll be right back with your coffee, I guess. This isn’t exactly what I was hoping to happen when I came to see you though.” He says sarcastically.

“Hurry back.” David calls back in response, laughing as he gets a middle-finger in response, and turns to go back into his classroom, almost bumping into Connor who was just coming to the door.

He opens it and sticks his head into the corridor curiously. “Was that Mr Brewer?” He asks.

“Um, yes, he was just, something about, a student.” David stutters in response, shooing him back into the classroom.

“Okay,” Connor says looking suspicious, “I just- I need to talk to him about my last maths paper.”

“What was wrong with your maths paper?” David asks as he moves to stand at the front of the classroom and Connor returns to his seat.

“Nothing. It’s nothing.” Connor replies.

“Okay.” David trails off, frowning, but doesn’t push at it, “is everyone back from break?”

The room seems to nod so he starts the next part of his lesson.

“Okay, so we left off talking about the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1960s, now, can anyone tell me why this movement was effective or ineffective, and what the general population thought about it?”

A girl called Justice in the third row puts her hand up and starts rattling on from the textbook.

“Okay, that’s really good,” David says slowly, “but what do you think? Do you think it was successful or not?”

She frowns for a moment, thinking hard before she replies, “um, no I don’t think it was.” She says, looking up for approval which David gives in the form of an encouraging nod, “um, but I don’t think it was the fault of the movement. I think society wasn’t willing to listen and was quick to ignore the efforts of these women in favour of a return to normalcy and conservatism that followed. I think people just found it easier to relax back into their old ways so that’s just what they did.”

She finishes, looking pleased with herself as David smiles, “that’s a really insightful argument Justice, I want to see more like that in your essays from now on.”

He sees Patrick approach the still open door in the corner of his eye, and tries to suppress his smile, “now, if you can all look at the worksheet on page one hundred and five, and start coming up with your own arguments about the success of each part of the movement.”

He waits until they are all settled looking at their books before turning to the door, where Patrick is leaning against the frame and looking at him with awe.

“Mr Brewer,” he says, unable to keep the fondness out of his voice. “I hope that’s for me?”

Patrick moves over and places the mug of coffee carefully in David’s hands, their fingers brushing slightly as he does so.

“Of course, Mr Rose, your coffee, as requested.” He punctuates his point with a cheeky wink, and they smile at each other for a moment.

They are pulled out of each other’s eyes by Connor, who puts his hands up and waves urgently. “Mr Brewer, you said I could speak to you, um about, my last maths test, can I--”

Patrick looks at him and frowns, looking concerned, “of course, yes, if Mr Rose doesn’t mind me stealing you for a bit?”

He looks at David who is watching the interaction with interest, “oh, of course not, go ahead.” He says as he realises that they are waiting for his response.

Connor leaves with Mr Brewer and they head towards the maths department, and David sips his coffee, deep in thought. He is brought back when he looks up and sees the class watching him, most of them looking like they are suppressing a laugh, “what?” he asks indignantly, “focus on your work!”

***

The lunch bell rings, and the class files out. David sits down behind his desk and opens his marking book.

He looks up when Patrick arrives, pulling a chair around the table to sit next to him, and placing two pots of pasta on the table.

“When did you--”

“I made it the other night and packed it whilst you were showering this morning.” Patrick says, handing him a fork.

David wastes no time in digging in but remains aware of Patrick’s eyes on him. He coughs slightly and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, searching for a conversation starter. “Is Connor alright?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, it’s just he was upset about something.”

“His maths quiz?”

Patrick just smirks in response and takes a bite of his food. When they are both done, he takes the pots and slips them back into his bag at his feet, reaching a hand across the desk to pull at David’s.

“Patrick,” David says calmly as his hand is pulled to rest on Patrick’s knee, “we’ve had this conversation.”

“Oh, I thought that was just about kissing. I didn’t realise it extended to all contact.” Patrick says, teasingly. “How about this, you have a bit of sauce there, can I--?”

He trails off, leaning to swipe the side of David’s mouth with his thumb and then taking it into his mouth.

David gapes back at him, heartbeat thrumming and face heating. “You- you can’t just--”

“Oh, can’t I?” Patrick asks, still smiling as David flushes red.

“This is- this is a place of work, and that was highly inappropriate!”

“Hm, inappropriate huh? Is that how we’re describing it?”

David just grumbles a comeback and turns back to his work huffily, after a while of Patrick watching him, he stands up and crosses the room to the bookshelf at the back.

“Are you just going to watch me all break?” He asks as he turns and sees Patrick just following him with his eyes.

At this, Patrick is the one to blush, looking down at his clasped hands, “how can I help it when the view is this good?” He jokes.

David is heading back to the desk when the door opens, and Stevie enters.

“Hello, David. Patrick.” She says, looking at the two of them eagerly.

“Hi, Stevie.”

“What are you doing here?” David asks, still holding a large biography on Robert Kennedy in his hands and bracing it against his body as if to protect himself. “I thought you had a hot date with Jake this break?”

“Who’s Jake?” Patrick asks, looking interested.

Stevie and David ignore him in favour of a silent, angry conversation.

“He is running late; I’m just waiting for him to--”

They are interrupted by the arrival of Jake at the door; “Hey pony, you ready to go?” He asks.

“Yep, let’s just--” Stevie turns around and tries to push him out of the room, but is unsuccessful.

“David! It’s been a while, how are you?” Jake asks, leaning in and planting a kiss on David’s lips.

David freezes in shock, his eyes wide, and responds by reflex before taking several steps back and leaning on a desk casually, “hmm, um, I thought you and your _pony_ were going--”

He looks up to see Patrick has stood up, standing next to Stevie with his arms crossed, watching the interaction with confusion.

“Oh, who’s this guy?” Jake asks.

“Um, this is- I’m, this is my, um--” David sputters, pointing at Patrick and trying to shuffle closer to him.

“I’m Patrick.”

They shake hands, Jake looking disinterested, whilst Patrick frowns at him.

“Well, we were just, um, going for lunch.” Stevie says, shoving Jake out of the room. “We will talk about this later.” She hisses to David as they leave.

“I wouldn’t bet on it.”

There’s silence in the room for a moment once they have left, David fluttering his hands and trying to find a way to start the conversation whilst Patrick looks into the distance.

“Um, so that’s Jake.” David says.

“Hmm, um, so when you said to me, like, five minutes ago that we couldn’t kiss in school, that was- that didn’t apply to him?” Patrick asks, looking at David tentatively.

“No! No, I didn’t, I wasn’t- it wasn’t like that I don’t--”

Patrick waits patiently for David to finish spluttering before continuing.

“We should probably talk at some point,” Patrick says slowly, “maybe not at work, so we can um, get on the same page I guess.”

“Yes! Yes definitely, I agree.”

“Hmm, so I’m gonna go--”

Wait!” David finally grabs onto Patrick’s shirt sleeve and tugs him slightly towards him, “wait before you go, can you just- I don’t want Jake to have been the last person to kiss me for the rest of the afternoon, and you to know that he was- um, will you please just--”

He trails off, looking pleadingly at Patrick, who still appears to have walls up.

“I’m gonna need you to say it, David.”

“Will you kiss me please?” He asks.

Patrick pauses for a moment but places a gentle hand on the side of David’s face, turning his head and slotting their lips together for a moment, before agonisingly moving away.

There’s a gasp from the doorway, and Patrick and David turn around to see a freshman that David teaches stood there with her hand over her mouth. She turns on her heel and runs down the corridor.

Patrick turns back to David looking apprehensive, “David, it’s not, we can--”

He’s shocked to silence when David just giggles and leans his head on his shoulder. “Well, the damage is already done.” David says, leaning back up with his hands placed on Patrick’s waist, “I guess one more couldn’t hurt?”

“Mm, I mean, I guess not.” Patrick says, sighing in relief and smiling as he leans in for another sweet kiss.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David and Connor have an enlightening chat, and they deal with the aftermath of their relationship being made public.

The news spreads around the school in record timing. David’s next class enter looking curious and excited and he sighs as he calls them to attention.

“Right, are we all- yes, go ahead?” He says, gesturing to a Sophomore girl he has yet to learn the name of who has her hand waving in the air.

“Is it true about you and Mr Brewer?” She asks quickly, earning a few laughs around the classroom. Well, now David is _definitely_ going to learn her name. And he’s going to write a scathing report for her on the dangers of gossip. That will teach her a lesson.

“Whatever rumours you have heard are none of your concern I--”

“Sophie’s little sister said she saw you two making out though, sir?”

“Wow. I don’t even know a Sophie” David mutters, shaking his head in disbelief. “Alright I’m having none of this today. Open your books.”

The same happens in every class he teaches that afternoon. He finishes early, and is cleaning the classroom, when there is a hesitant knock on the door.

He turns around and is surprised to see Connor standing there, looking anxious.

“Um, hello?” He says, walking up to the desk, “um, come in, are you alright?”

“Can I ask you something, sir?” Connor asks, immediately walking in and closing the door to begin pacing the floor in front of David’s desk.

David is torn between being amused and concerned, so settles on being silent, and crosses his arms waiting for him to talk.

“I- I’m seeing someone.” Connor says suddenly.

“Oh,” David replies, surprised, “um, have you considered speaking to the guidance counsellor? You shouldn’t feel pressured to do anything that you are not comfortable--”

“No, no it’s not about- it’s nothing like that.”

“Oh, thank God.” David gives a sigh of relief, “what is it then?”

“Um, so we have been seeing each other for a little while. But, um, his parents don’t know? Actually, nobody knows, and um, and I don’t think he feels comfortable with anyone knowing.”

“Is that a problem for you?”

Connor comes to a stop in front of David’s desk and chews his lip, “I- I don’t know. I don’t want him to be ashamed of me. I worked really hard to be out and proud in a town like this, so I don’t want to hide things about myself like that.”

David nods, waving for him to continue.

“But equally, I can’t- I won’t be the one to force him out of the closet.”

“Is that what it is? Is he in the closet?”

Connor frowns, looking at David as if to suggest that should be obvious. David walks around to the front of the desk and shuffles to sit on it.

“What I’m trying to say, is that some people are in the closet, and I completely understand what you’re saying about not wanting to necessarily force him out of it. But have you asked him if he is closeted purposefully, or whether he is only ‘in the closet’ because he doesn’t act or appear in a certain way?”

“Like us you mean?” Connor asks, smirking slightly.

“Kind of, you get my point though. Is he lying about it and actively hiding it, or is it just that people have made assumptions and he hasn’t quite gotten around to correcting them yet.”

“Is that what happened with you and Mr Brewer?” He asks, looking embarrassed.

“Um, well, yes I guess it is. People make assumptions all they like, Connor. You need to talk to him and ask him if he is comfortable with making it more obvious that you’re in a relationship, and if he’s not then you can take it from there. But you need to be on the same page to tackle this properly.”

Connor looks thoughtful for a moment, “Mr Brewer said something similar you know.”

“Oh, is that what you were talking to him about?” David asks, smirking slightly, “and what else did Mr Brewer say?”

“He was surprised that I knew about you and him being together. He actually gave very similar advice to you, he said that I needed to ask my boyfriend what he was comfortable with so that he can explain it to me properly.”

“Hmm, he’s very smart.” David says, smiling.

“I- You know, I’m really happy I have you two as role models. Um, before I came here, I didn’t know any queer people, and I know I was defensive the first time Mrs Schitt brought you in to talk to me but, um, thank you for sticking with me anyway.”

Connor says the whole speech looking at his shoes, so he misses the surprised smile that is evident on David’s face.

“Hah, well, I wouldn’t call me a role model.” He says, “I’m more of a do as I say not as I do sort of character, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

Connor smiles at that, and heads towards the door.

“Thank you, Mr Rose.” He says, “Oh, and I’m sorry that everyone found out about you and Mr Brewer, I know you were trying to keep it a secret the last couple weeks, but I don’t think anyone is going to have a problem with it.”

With that he’s gone, leaving David to frown in confusion, “Weeks?” He mutters to himself, wandering around the desk and packing his bag.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Patrick asks from the doorway.

“Hah, I don’t think they’re worth that much.” David replies. He pauses before continuing, looking nervous. “I know we said we’d talk about this later, but I want to get it out now before it builds.”

Patrick doesn’t seem surprised by his outburst, and simply crosses his arms across his chest and nods for David to continue.

“I didn’t know Jake was going to come in and kiss me, and I never would have accepted it - he caught me by surprise.”

“Hmm, I gathered that.” Patrick says, leaning against the door jam.

“I met him at a party with my parents, I dated him for a while but then I found out that he was dating Stevie at the same time. We didn’t realise, I found it super weird and we both broke up with him. A couple of weeks later she asked permission to keep seeing him and after a little argument about it I told her she should and encouraged her to go on the school trip with him.”

“Ah.”

“I didn’t - I told her I didn’t want any contact with him if they were still dating because it made me uncomfortable, that’s why we were glaring at each other when she showed up here.”

“Oh, so it’s not like. You don’t still--”

“No! No, I don’t want any of that. I- I don’t want you to think that I’m not one hundred percent in it with you.”

“Oh, so we’re one hundred percent in this, now are we?” Patrick asks, approaching slowly.

“Well, you tell me.” David says, as he settles his hands carefully on Patrick’s waist, “Um, I just spoke to Connor. Why does he seem to be under the impression that we have been together for weeks?”

Patrick flushes at this, immediately looking sheepish, “Um, he may have spoken to me about something a little while ago. Um, and I maybe didn’t correct him when he assumed that we were together.”

David laughs at this, “A few weeks ago?”

“Um, maybe?”

David reaches for his hand and they walk out of the school, linking their fingers together tightly. They are just crossing the car park when David continues.

“I suppose we have some catching up to do.” He says, pulling Patrick quickly towards the car.

“What do you m-ph”

He’s cut off by David backing him full-bodily into the car and attacking him with his mouth. The kiss is all teeth and tongue, it’s messy, and definitely not suitable for work premises.

“What about--”

“I am formally taking back my earlier request.” David says, as he places more kisses on Patrick’s mouth, “I’m going to kiss you in every room in this school.”

Patrick laughs in surprise. “That might take a while.”

“I sure hope it does.”

Their next kiss is prevented from getting any deeper by both of their full-mouthed smiles, but David thinks it might be his favourite kiss yet.

***

**_One month later…_ **

David groans, but the alarm keeps blazing regardless of how much he waves around to reach for it on his bedside table.

It is then that he realises that there is no bedside table because he is in Patrick’s bed.

He rolls to push at Patrick who grunts in return, but turns to his side and switches off the alarm.

“I need a table there.” David mutters, screwing his eyes up against the light coming in through the curtains.

“Hmm, but then I won’t be able to tempt you to come closer like you do now.” Patrick returns easily, slipping a hand around David’s hip and pulling their naked bodies closer together.

David sighs at the sensation but refuses to let himself get lost in it.

“Mhm, nice try.” He says, kissing Patrick’s neck softly before pushing up and off the bed, walking slowly to the bathroom and looking back to see Patrick’s eyes following him, “get me a side table and I’ll make it worth your while.”

***

They are late to school that day, rushing in carrying a messy pile of books in each hand. They run down the decorated corridor with their hands clasped together between them, carefully dodging the motion activated singing Santa Claus figure that Roland kept moving every day, before coming to the staff room.

“Have a good day,” David says, leaning in, to cup one hand against Patrick’s face and pecking him lightly on the lips.

“See you at lunch.” Patrick responds, kissing him once more before jogging down the corridor, turning around once more before he turns the corner and waving.

David arrives in the classroom with a flurry of apologies and excuses.

His classes go well, the class being far too distracted by the promise of Christmas celebrations to cause any trouble, and most of them paying at least some sort of attention which is really the most David can ask for at this time of year.

In his free period before lunch, he heads down to the staffroom and passes Patrick in the corridor, talking to Ray.

Patrick winks, and leans an arm out to hit David on the ass with his folder as he walks by, earning a glare but just laughing in response.

They meet for lunch, opening their leftover dinner from the night before and eating it, curled up next to each other on the seats. They leave the staffroom early, heading to David’s classroom, where David jumps up to sit on the desk and pulls Patrick into his arms momentarily.

They kiss slowly for a while, not allowing themselves to get too distracted so as to not notice anyone in the corridor, or to go any further than soft touching lips and gliding hands on each other’s shoulders

In the evenings, they head home together, usually ending up in David’s apartment to spend time with Freddie, then tumbling into bed together.

That evening is no different. Patrick cooks dinner whilst David complains about his day passionately. They eat together, trading stories about students and things they’re looking forward to over the Christmas holidays.

David cleans the dishes in the sink and doesn’t jump anymore when Patrick’s arms snake around his waist and pull him flush against his body.

“Have I ever told you how sexy you look in these rubber gloves?” Patrick asks, mouthing against David’s neck in exactly the spot that always makes him squirm in pleasure.

“Mm, they’re to protect my skin from the washing up liquid.”

“Mhm, tell me more about your skin care.”

David swats at him with his cleaning brush, but moans when Patrick slips his hands under the bottom of his sweater and stokes at his lower belly.

He turns around in Patrick’s arms, just to be pushed back against the counter. Within moments he has pulled off the gloves and thrown them in the now clean sink, reaching to wrap his arms around Patrick’s neck and kissing him thoroughly.

***

**_Two years later…_ **

David squirms as he feels Patricks lips making the journey up his neck and to his face.

“Too early,” he mumbles, gasping nonetheless as Patrick reaches a hand under his pyjama top and skates over his nipples teasingly.

“Good morning, Mr Rose.” Patrick whispers into his husband’s ear as he writhes underneath him, resisting the grasp of the morning even as the sound of car doors and engines starting can be heard outside.

“Mm, good morning, Mr Rose.” David responds. Kissing him soundly on the lips before they are forced to throw back the covers and prepare for the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was such a joy to write! I hope you enjoyed, let me know in the comments what you thought, and I will hopefully be updating some of my other fics regularly as well!


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